Match Reaction v BATE Borisov (away).

[SMatthews]

It took Liverpool 3 goes to find someone that could make them competitive again after Rafa Benitez.

It could be a while for us too.

Exactly - and look at Utd. Even when they found Klopp it took him ages to sort out the defence to make them title contenders. This is going to be a long, hard road. Especially with our owners.

[Letters]

Five points is significant if you believe we have the 5th best squad in the league, as it means we are in much closer contention with the top four than we were at this stage last season. Without significant investment, we aren’t going to jump above the top 3 (whether it’s City, Liverpool, Spurs, or City, Liverpool, Utd), so that leaves us chasing fourth spot – which was the most realistic goal for us at the start of the season. We’re on course for that so far.

You're way too sensible for this place.

I was hoping for a challenge for the top 4 and I guess you have to say that Emery is delivering that so far. It's just feeling a bit of a slog right now. I miss going into games confident we'd win. At home I'm still confident in most games, away we are all over the shop. There have been flashes of improvement - not counting the Chelsea game, they're a mess, but the ones against Spurs and Liverpool at home, we were good in those games and that looked like some real improvement. I've mentioned the Leicester game where we took them apart in the second half. As I like to say, let's judge things at the end of the season. Right now I'm not particularly impressed with how things are going though.

[SMatthews]

You're way too sensible for this place.

I was hoping for a challenge for the top 4 and I guess you have to say that Emery is delivering that so far. It's just feeling a bit of a slog right now. I miss going into games confident we'd win. At home I'm still confident in most games, away we are all over the shop. There have been flashes of improvement - not counting the Chelsea game, they're a mess, but the ones against Spurs and Liverpool at home, we were good in those games and that looked like some real improvement. I've mentioned the Leicester game where we took them apart in the second half. As I like to say, let's judge things at the end of the season. Right now I'm not particularly impressed with how things are going though.

I guess when you become an old bastard you just realise rarely do things go smoothly right away. It is a slog at times, but top four is all that matters right now. Home we're secure and while we're not exactly flying away from home, we're doing better than last season. We lost 11 times then, which was a joke. It's the small improvement we've made there that's probably kept us in touch with fourth, as our home form is probably pretty similar to last year.

I've no idea if Emery is the guy, but I don't think we can really tell until at least 18-24 months in. If we're still slogging it then, with a crap defence and generally treading water, then he'll have nowhere to hide.

I also think the fact there are 6 teams going for 4 spots opens the question up as to whether or not that is the minimum standard with which to judge a manager's performance. I mean, there are going to be two clubs a season missing out. Neither City or Utd will on a regular basis because of their money, so that leaves four going into two. Will that mean clubs regularly sacking managers every 2 years if they can't make it back in (including us)? It's a different landscape now compared to 5 years ago even. I'm not saying if that's right or wrong, but it feels pretty crazy if that turns out to be the case.

[AFC Leveller]

There is a picture of the Bate players getting stuck into burgers at Burker King at 8 am this morning.

We lost to a team who hasn’t played for 2 months and has burgers for breakfast.

[Özim]

We should have won yesterday, but the players weren't up for it, having said that Emery picked the wrong team again, Torreira should have been in (for the awful Xhaka who can't take a corner to save his life, his inability to take a corner and beat the first man is shocking) and Auba, we don't have a game at the weekend so there was no reason to save them. If we'd won this comfortably we could have rested a few in the return.

The Ozil situation continues as well, not that he would have made a difference yesterday.

[Özim]

That is just more bullshit. You can't possibly say these players are inherently flawed because Wenger bought them. Plenty of "Wenger players" have come from successful sides or gone on to success elsewhere.
Some of them aren't good enough to challenge, fine, but they're plenty good enough to be beating sides like BATE.
The accepted wisdom was that they had been allowed to underperform and Wenger wasn't able to motivate them, it's not unreasonable to expect a new manager to correct that and get more out of them.
Why does it take time? To challenge, sure. We're nowhere near that but if Wenger was as bad as you've claimed then surely any new manager would get more out of this lot.
There are plenty of examples of managers changing and not buying big and doing better than the previous incumbent.

They're not flawed because Wenger bought them,they were nevber any good when he bought them, he should have never bought them in the 1st place, but as always he thought he knew better.

Yes of course they should be good enough to beat Bate, but a lot have got a critical flaw, lack of hunger/desire, these players have been around this environment where nothing is expected of them for years, they're been taught that it's OK not to be that bothered about losing, these aren't players who hate to lose, they're just not that bothered, Koscielny didn't event get the team to thank the away fans.

Perhaps Emerys strong point isn't motivating, but to be honest as I've said for years this bunch are a lost cause, we need a big clearout, I know you don't accept that but it's the truth, there's probably about 8 or 9 that should leave or be sold.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

There is a picture of the Bate players getting stuck into burgers at Burker King at 8 am this morning.

We lost to a team who hasn’t played for 2 months and has burgers for breakfast.

Hope they did the hippie crack and hoes after....

[McNamara That Ghost...]

There is a picture of the Bate players getting stuck into burgers at Burker King at 8 am this morning.

We lost to a team who hasn’t played for 2 months and has burgers for breakfast.

Eating the cows they were herding the day before.

[Mac76]

There is a picture of the Bate players getting stuck into burgers at Burker King at 8 am this morning.

is that the Islamic version of Burger King?

ok, i know...

[hobson's choice]

They're not flawed because Wenger bought them,they were nevber any good when he bought them, he should have never bought them in the 1st place, but as always he thought he knew better.

Yes of course they should be good enough to beat Bate, but a lot have got a critical flaw, lack of hunger/desire, these players have been around this environment where nothing is expected of them for years, they're been taught that it's OK not to be that bothered about losing, these aren't players who hate to lose, they're just not that bothered, Koscielny didn't event get the team to thank the away fans.

Perhaps Emerys strong point isn't motivating, but to be honest as I've said for years this bunch are a lost cause, we need a big clearout, I know you don't accept that but it's the truth, there's probably about 8 or 9 that should leave or be sold.

For fucks sakes, look at Emery's record. What about him screams great manager. He's coached long enough to know exactly what he is. Which is slightly above average.

And what I've learnt a lot of these signings in the past couple of signing were "Analysis" signings. Which Wenger like most old coaches detest. Why in the fukk did you think Wenger wanted to get rid of Mustafi last year. Or sold Gabriel and had no time for Perez. Those weren't his signings.