Match Mehaction: Watford 2 Arsenal 1

[Chippy]

How much longer can this go on. A manager tactically in the dark ages and an owner who does not have a clue. Once I would have been devastated by this result ,now I no longer care. This is the level this once great club has sunk to.

Fuck em! Our once great club has gone. Victoria Concordia Crescit. Amen.

[Cripps]

I actually think he knows he's fucked, but he wants to keep the club from slipping further (rightly or wrongly). I think he know Stans a cunt, and I think he's actually the only one still in it for The Arsenal. I was wrong....

He can't cut it. We all know that. He does too. I reckon he's staying to stop the worst case senario...where an clueless board sign a manager that will end everything....

Nah. He's staying cause he's a man scared of post-football retirement. His wife left him, his family left him, he has nothing. Arsenal and football is his life and he doesn't know what to do without it.

[Ralpheroo72]

I'm starting to think we may not win the league this season

[Letters]

Telling ya, looking up the results afterwards and going "Oh" is way less stressful.
Actually kinda laughed at this one but that may have just been the jet lag.

Overall: Meh.

[Power n Glory]

Be interesting to see if Richarlison gets the 2 match ban he should. Xhaka is slowly driving out all my preseason hopes for him too. Elneny I have long expected negativity from so I can stomach that and we didn't pay 35 million for him.

Xhaka hasn't got anymore gears to his game. What you see is what you get. Like many others around him, you have to hope the manager stumbles upon a winning combination or tactic that will suit him. He's a limited player. Nowhere near as creative as I was lead to believe.

[Niall_Quinn]

I'm starting to think we may not win the league this season

Your pessimism is dragging the whole club down.

Thanks a lot!

[Power n Glory]

Xhaka and Elneny were the problem. We need someone in central midfield who will drive forward with the ball and create space those two were a couple of pansies looking for short passes and getting constantly dispossessed. Whatever Ozil did wrong when he came on at least he was trying to get forward.

Xhaka, Elneny, Iwobi and Welbeck have to take some flack for the lack of creativity and goals. But it doesn't explain why we lost the game. No point in going too deep on that one though. We know why we lost. It's one man and always has been. It always comes to back this one culprit.

Ozil!

[Niall_Quinn]

Xhaka hasn't got anymore gears to his game. What you see is what you get. Like many others around him, you have to hope the manager stumbles upon a winning combination or tactic that will suit him. He's a limited player. Nowhere near as creative as I was lead to believe.

That's about it. If sheer randomness aligns an open ended number of permutations we should see Xhaka at this best.

Which will be average.

Like most of our players.

But, even then, we won't be doing the bread and butter stuff that builds consistency, we'll be doing the brief patch of arrogant dick stuff that materialises from time to time to keep alive the myth we play good football.

Xhaka was never know for his creativity - it was his consistency. Tip, tap, tip, tap, tip, tap, 99% pass competition. Absolutely perfect for Wenger's keep-ball fantasies. Arteta played that way because he was a good pro and did what the boss wanted. Xhaka plays that way because it's all he can do. We've spent 70 mill on him and Mustafi. We could have had a world class player here for 2 seasons now, instead. Which would have made all the difference to a lot of things.

[Niall_Quinn]

Xhaka, Elneny, Iwobi and Welbeck have to take some flack for the lack of creativity and goals. But it doesn't explain why we lost the game. No point in going too deep on that one though. We know why we lost. It's one man and always has been. It always comes to back this one culprit.

Ozil!

You don't need to go to Barca or Bayern to know what a proper midfielder looks like. The older fans at Arsenal (because the glory days really are starting to become distant) know all about decent midfielders. Xhaka, Elneny and Coquelin? Wenger's fooling nobody.

I don't count Ramsey as a midfielder, he's more like an opposition goalkeeper. And Jack, despite min being the messiah yet to come, has already shown us how serious he is about being a top player.

Wenger really has let things slide this time.

[Niall_Quinn]

Wenger's apologist in chief, Martin Keown, has slammed Mesut Ozil for not being ruthless enough and costing Arsenal all three points in their defeat at Watford.
The midfielder came off the bench for the injured Danny Welbeck in the second half before wasting a golden opportunity to fire the Gunners into a 2-0 lead after failing to score with just Heurelho Gomes to beat.

Seconds later Watford equalised through a controversial penalty but Ozil then crucially failed to close down in the midfield during stoppage time in the build up to Watford's winning goal.

Arsene's Little Helper, Keown, was furious with the Germany international, whose contract expires next summer, and as well as pinning the blame on the 28-year-old questioned his future in the side as well as his effort for the team.

'I feel he (Ozil) was at fault for the late goal conceded,' the former Arsenal defender told BT Sport.

'I don't know whether there is a future for him now in this Arsenal team and I know it looks like I'm coming for him all the time but he really should have finished the game off.

'The top players are ruthless and they don't play for fun. I don't know if he's got that ruthlessness in his make-up. That ball has got to be in the back of the net (speaking on missed chance).

'That should be game over, Arsenal have won the game. People might think i'm coming for him but you've got to be clinical in those situations. Is he really bothered there?

'He's just missed an opportunity to win the game for Arsenal and everything that happens afterwards wouldn't have happened. I don't know if he cares enough or not but he's certainly not ruthless enough.

'There's only one outcome isn't there? When it comes to January surely Ozil will be gone.'

I'm with Keown on this. Once Ozil is gone everything will be just great at the club. With Ozil gone we won't get outplayed by teams like Watford. With Ozil gone we'll be able to keep our 50 million quid striker on for the whole match, like Lukaku, so he can finish off the chances the German has been missing. And with Ozil gone, players like Elneny and Xhaka will dominate the midfield. And Alexis won't be as tired and his head won't be in the wrong place and he'll be able to start more than one game a week, like Coutinho and Firminho. We'll also be able to sign top players who can step in when injury hits. But above all else, the neverending stream of profligacy in front of goal that seems to blight anyone pulling on an Arsenal shirt will come to an end. Players like Theo Walcott will become lethal overnight.

When you think about it, we are very fortunate so much can be solved by getting rid of just the one player.

Keown is so right, there's just no future for that man at this club. Time for him to go. No more pissing around, ruthlessness is what is required now.

Isn't that right? Martin?