Match Reaction v The Villa (home).

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Well what a shitshow. :haha:

Up to fourth somehow.

Didn't lose somehow.

[Globalgunner]

Missing dunderheads like Xhaka and AMN improved the team. Now who should start the next match.Hmmmmm?

[dazthegooner]

Match reaction... Shit!

[Letters]

Up to fourth somehow.
The somehow is it's a really poor quality league.
Last year and this it’s become Liverpool and City playing Rangers and Celtic then a load of dross.

[dostoy]

Credit where credit is due here.

I thought at 0-1 and down to 10 men, they were done for but with some strange/inspired subs, they have come back to win.

Callum Chambers must play more and replace AMN until Bellend is back.

Well done Arsenal and Mr Emery.

[LDG]

Hearing Guendouzi was the driving force in that??

From what folks were saying here, I thought he was having a shocker

[McNamara That Ghost...]

Both are true I think of Guendouzi. Shocker in the first half, however when it's clear what the only options is that he can do, he's far better for it.

[Dial Square Old Boy]

Winning this one doesn’t alter the fact that Emery’s tactics have to improve. Had we lost I would have given him just 4 games more before the sack. Now I’ll grant him six. From which I expect 12 points plus. Anything less than 7 points over the next six games, then he’got to go.

[Master Splinter]

Every match is chaos. No team can achieve anything without even a semblance of control.

Auba is maybe our only reliable player and is clearly a favourite with everyone inside and outside the club. It's a no-brainer that he should be captain.

Pepe and Ceballos still not having any impact. But with no attacking pattern or consistency, maybe it's understandable.

Xhaka and AMN woeful and idiotic again.

Sokratis was fine last season but he has been shockingly bad this season. Holding has to go straight back into the team and Chambers deserves a run ahead of the senior pair too.

As soon as Willock and Torreira came on the team was far more assertive and along with Guendouzi's drive, it turned the game. If Emery can't see how much Willock adds to the midfield than it's another baffling oversight in a growing list.

Saka was our best player in the first half and didn't deserve to go off. Hopefully it won't damage his confidence.

We'll just have to embrace the shitshow until something clicks with Emery (unlikely) or he's fired (also unlikely anytime soon).

[Marc Overmars]

From where we were in the game, brilliant.

But no getting away from how utterly flawed this team is.

Emery is sadly looking like a dud of a coach. Really underwhelmed and disappointed with how little has changed with this team. Hard to see what impact he's had on them, if any.

[Letters]

I would 3-2 be a Villa fan :cool:

[AFC Leveller]

Yet again the fundamental flaws in this team are all too apparent, we are a shocking team defensively.

Emery has taken Wengers team and made it even worse despite signing supposedly better players. His tactics and lack of real game plan are becoming the norm and we looked like we had no ideas even at 0-0 with 11 men.

Xhaka is terrible and AMN is our os his depth and keeps costing us too often.

[Gooner23]

Fuck off with your five captains bollox and just give it to Auba. The guy is a talisman.

[Master Splinter]

Auba is an elite player in a delete team.

[I am invisible]

I’m not sure my heart can take another 8 months of this...

[Chippy]

Well what a shitshow. :haha:

Up to fourth somehow.

Didn't lose somehow.

Feel bad for saying it, but part of me didn't want us to come back and win because it gives Dick Emery more time.
This team us a fucking shambles in both defence and midfield. AMN, Xhaka, Sokratis, Side show Bob, etc. terrible!

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

Didn't watch the game, just read the match thread and the comments above.

The poster who said every game we play is chaos is spot on. The Frankfurt game was the closest thing I've seen to us playing with some sort of control or lets even call it a gameplan, but instead of building on it what does Emery do in the next game, rip it all up and return to true form.
We cannot continue struggling and looking clueless in every single game, FFS Watford was beaten 8-0 by Citeh at the very next try!

I'm just happy the fans are not giving this team or should I say this manager an inch anymore. For every stupid time he starts Xhaka while his betters are warming the bench we must make it clear to this manager how we feel. It was only because of the strong backlash that he's afraid to play Mustafi and if we keep giving him and his golden boy grief they might both go on a honeymoon together and give us back our team.

We need to move on from this soap opera and get a manager who has a vision that syncs with ours. Rubbish.

[LDG]

How the hell was that not a Villa penalty at the end? Did VAR review it?

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I thought the second half was possibly Guendouzi’s best half in an Arsenal shirt. Lost my voice from shouting! Thank goodness for Auba. Ok I give in... drop Luiz, Sok or both of them already.

[AFC Leveller]

How the hell was that not a Villa penalty at the end? Did VAR review it?

The ref actually decided himself that it wasn’t a pel, didn’t even go to VAR. It was another stupid decision by Sokratis, blatant handball.

[Bumble]

didnt watch the game... but we won.... and also united, Chelsea and spurs all lost so as a weekend goes not bad.

I still don't think we will finish below 4th despite our many issues.

Next up United which could be interesting as they are being really poor at the moment and there for the taking.

[Marc Overmars]

They’ve been there for the taking many times but we don’t turn up at Old Trafford.

[Globalgunner]

They’ve been there for the taking many times but we don’t turn up at Old Trafford.

If we show.up.with Xhaka as Emery certainly will. Then we will give them the morale boosting 3 points as usual

[Gooner23]

I have a little sympathy for Xhaka in that he is regularly left to hold the midfield on his own, and that's something that needs to be addressed by Emery as teams are just playing through us with ease.

Ultimately though, Xhaka just doesn't have the legs (or intelligence) to do the job he is being to do.

The midfield going forwards has to be 3 from Torreira, Guendouzi, Willock and Ceballos.

[Özim]

Good win in the end, but again the defending was horrendous.

Guendouzi was great in the 2nd half, he's at his best when he's moving forward to be honest, defensively he's not much good (as you could see from Villas first goal), the minute we took Xhaka off we were great, guess that means he'll be back in the 1st team next match!

Signing Sokratis was always a strange one IMO, given his age he wasn't going to have too long left at the top before we'd need to replace him, looks like we might have reached that point now, he looks terrible and is really error prone, given the fact he's playing next to another error prone CB it's a big issue for us.

Chambers was excellent when he came on too as was Willock, as ever Aubameyang with a great goal, can't wait for Lacazette to come back as well, he makes such a different to our game.

Emery saved his job by the skin of his teeth, but I'm just not convinced he's the man for the job based on what we've seen of him

[Özim]

I have a little sympathy for Xhaka in that he is regularly left to hold the midfield on his own, and that's something that needs to be addressed by Emery as teams are just playing through us with ease.

Ultimately though, Xhaka just doesn't have the legs (or intelligence) to do the job he is being to do.

The midfield going forwards has to be 3 from Torreira, Guendouzi, Willock and Ceballos.

I've got no sympathy for him, he offers nothing to the team, makes errors regularly and doesn't do the job he's been asked to do properly, on top of that he gives interviews and tells people the team were scared of the opposition.

Xhaka should never play, Torreira is the guy who should be in the team instead of him, Xhaka should be nowhere near the 1st team, he should be sold.

[Gooner23]

I've got no sympathy for him, he offers nothing to the team, makes errors regularly and doesn't do the job he's been asked to do properly, on top of that he gives interviews and tells people the team were scared of the opposition.

Xhaka should never play, Torreira is the guy who should be in the team instead of him, Xhaka should be nowhere near the 1st team, he should be sold.

I agree Xhaka should not be playing, but the issues go beyond individuals. I honestly don't think Torreira would fare that much better in the current set-up.

[Marc Overmars]

The team can't defend, individually or collectively, we concede too many chances, too many goals and have no real or effective way of playing to negate that.

Emery is shit. Get rid.

[dazthegooner]

Well Emery has said that Arsenal need Xhaka that comment should be a sacking offence in itself.

[fakeyank]

Xhaka has a Kardashian style video on good ebening.. that can be the only reason he is starting. Brings absolutely nothing to the table. If I were Torreira, I'd feel like I got a kick in the balls every time Xhaka steps on the pitch ahead of him.

[Mac76]

well i was at the game and i have to say it felt like what football's supposed to be about in the sense it was highs and lows and ultimately a good show of spirit for the lads to get the 3 points.

but on the team i do agree that it was one of those matches where Emery had to undo the bad selections he made for the start.

Ii agree that Sok's lost the plot and Luiz simply isn't a defender, neither is AMN

i'm bored of saying how bad Xhaka is

the subs really made a difference and Saka had a bright start.

i think some of the younger players have more than proved they're worthy of a bit more of a run out - but Emery's cuation sends him to older 'experienced' players like sokratis, Xhaka and for a long time Mhki and Mustafi.

don't know if it came across on the telly but Xhaka was roundly booed when he left the field, i think it was when we started doing that to Mustafi that the penny dropped even with Emery.

trouble is with Xhaka being captain it will be harder as Emery has to admit he's cocked up giving him the armband

but whoever the manager i'd have been as ashamed as last week if Villa had beaten us or even got a draw tbh so glad Guendouzi, Chambers and others worked hard and got the win

none of us could believe it when Auba gave the pen to Pepe - it just didn't seem like the right time - but he was cool enough

and Auba's free kick was terrific though Heaton left a gap and wrong-footed himself when it was taken.

best comedy moment was Heaton rushing to take a goal kick at the end after timewasting all match :lol:

[Özim]

Well Emery has said that Arsenal need Xhaka that comment should be a sacking offence in itself.

Agreed, anyone who can't see how bad Xhaka is really has no place managing a club like Arsenal.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

Not Xhaka's biggest fan but I was uncomfortable with the loud cheer followed by booing when Xhaka went off. Didn't think it was particularly necessary or that Xhaka even had that bad a game.

It was pretty obvious to me that Auba would give the pen to Pepe.....and it's not like Auba's own pen record is flawless. People still blame our missing out on CL on his pen miss against Spurs last season despite Auba being the golden boot holder and the team fuhking up the last several games of the season.

[Mac76]

Not Xhaka's biggest fan but I was uncomfortable with the loud cheer followed by booing when Xhaka went off. Didn't think it was particularly necessary or that Xhaka even had that bad a game.

It was pretty obvious to me that Auba would give the pen to Pepe.....and it's not like Auba's own pen record is flawless. People still blame our missing out on CL on his pen miss against Spurs last season despite Auba being the golden boot holder and the team fuhking up the last several games of the season.

i was really encouraged to hear people booing Xhaka - maybe it can seem a bit hard on the player, who no doubt thinks he's doing his best, but it's the only way the fans can let Emery know what they think of Xhaka's being captain and playing every game, plus constantly being excused when he fuhks up.

it seemed like it was fan reaction that at least party did for Mustafi so maybe it can work with Xhaka too

fair point re Auba's pen record but i think most of us where i am in the ground just thought it was a risk to give it to Pepe in the circumstances, but as i said he put it away pretty coolly

[Letters]

Really harsh to boo one of our own players IMO.
A message needs to be sent but surely people's reactions as he makes mistakes is enough.
Unless there's a suggestion he can't be arsed - and I don't think there is - it seems a bit unnecessary.

[Mac76]

Really harsh to boo one of our own players IMO.
A message needs to be sent but surely people's reactions as he makes mistakes is enough.
Unless there's a suggestion he can't be arsed - and I don't think there is - it seems a bit unnecessary.

it's clearly not enough for fans to react to his mistakes or Emery would have done something by now

and as for whether he's arsed, i didn't really see him motivating anyone the other day it was left to Guendouzi

if Emery can't manage his squad better the fans need to tell him how to do it - everyone in the stadium knows Xhaka's a waste of space except Emery - we have to hope his own self-preservation will kick in and he'll drop him