Match Reaction vs Citeh (home).

[Özim]

Right or wrong, a lot has to change at Arsenal and that includes the mentality and attitude of the fans. We can’t be walking out on the first game of the season before the final whistle. It looks bad. Groaning and sarcastic applauds/chants for when Cech kicks it long isn’t of playing it short isn’t helpful at all. It’s the first day of the season where we are trying to set a foundation and get these players playing a certain way. We can’t abandon that idea at the first hurdle of trouble.

As said, it’s gonna be tough. Critical thought online and on the forums is fine, but at the stadium, I’d expect a lot better from the fans.

I don't see anything wrong with making observations though, Cech clearly can't pass so why play him if you've just bought a keeper for 20 million that can, as I said I thought it was odd Cech should play, he's 36, past his best and isn't the future of the club, with a new start playing a new keeper makes sense.

Emery will get a chance no doubt about it, but he also has to show that he's adaptable and proactive, as long as he does that he'll be fine.

I do think the fans are frustrated by the club, as Lee said the lack of investment shows where our priorities lie, we were miles behind last season and haven't really tried to bridge the gap or backed the manager which is why Man City outclassed us.

[Goonermerree]

It makes total sense that he's given a chance. I still think yesterday was a lackluster performance. I know it was City but Huddersfield and Palace gave it a right go last season, Palace should have been the first to beat City

[Power n Glory]

I don't see anything wrong with making observations though, Cech clearly can't pass so why play him if you've just bought a keeper for 20 million that can, as I said I thought it was odd Cech should play, he's 36, past his best and isn't the future of the club, with a new start playing a new keeper makes sense.

Emery will get a chance no doubt about it, but he also has to show that he's adaptable and proactive, as long as he does that he'll be fine.

I do think the fans are frustrated by the club, as Lee said the lack of investment shows where our priorities lie, we were miles behind last season and haven't really tried to bridge the gap or backed the manager which is why Man City outclassed us.

Every observation is negative. That’s the problem. When that attitude transfers to the stadium and we’ve already got this attitude of ‘no hope’, something we spoke about before…it might be time to switch off. It’s going to hurt us in the long run.

The players and managers will have to rise above it but first day of the season we shouldn’t be having this discussion.

[Özim]

It makes total sense that he's given a chance. I still think yesterday was a lackluster performance. I know it was City but Huddersfield and Palace gave it a right go last season, Palace should have been the first to beat City

Yeah agreed, just don't think the players played as if they wanted to impress the manager which is the normal thing that happens when someone new comes in, that for me shows a lack of hunger and complacency.

[Özim]

Every observation is negative. That’s the problem. When that attitude transfers to the stadium and we’ve already got this attitude of ‘no hope’, something we spoke about before…it might be time to switch off. It’s going to hurt us in the long run.

The players and managers will have to rise above it but first day of the season we shouldn’t be having this discussion.

Not everything is negative but you have to call it like you see it, Guendouzi was positive and actually showed desire, Lacazette looked sharp when he came on, Torreira looked decent and Lichsteiner was decent defensively (all but one are the new players interstingly). But we were outclassed yesterday and for a club like Arsenal that's hard to take and we certainly could have done things better by showing a bit more energy.

Noone expected us to win, but I think people expected the players to be keen and hungry, I personally think the Wenger lot lacked that by in large.

[Goonermerree]

Yeah agreed, just don't think the players played as if they wanted to impress the manager which is the normal thing that happens when someone new comes in, that for me shows a lack of hunger and complacency.

Emery has had a chance to see them in a competitive match, different to a friendly, and I'm trusting him to be able to sort it out. Some of the player's complacency may be deeply entrenched and they need a roasting, hopefully, he will roast them.

[Power n Glory]

Not everything is negative but you have to call it like you see it, Guendouzi was positive and actually showed desire, Lacazette looked sharp when he came on, Torreira looked decent and Lichsteiner was decent defensively (all but one are the new players interstingly). But we were outclassed yesterday and for a club like Arsenal that's hard to take and we certainly could have done things better by showing a bit more energy.

Noone expected us to win, but I think people expected the players to be keen and hungry, I personally think the Wenger lot lacked that by in large.

I don’t think it was a case of lack of desire. Not all players. City just managed to keep us pinned back in our own half. Not all teams will take that approach and they won’t all be capable of playing that way. Those that try to replicate may find themselves vulnerable and more open at the back. We still have to see how we cope when we have the ball and what we do with it.

Losing is never great but I’ve seen us lose by a wider margin when pinned back like that with way more individual blunders when defending. Under Wenger, I believe that game would have been over in the first half. Well, it was last season.

[Marc Overmars]

I don't get leaving early if you've made the effort and paid a fortune. Whenever I go to a match I stay slightly later than the final whistle to get my moneys worth if nothing else. It's not exactly cheap is it? The only time I can understand it is if it's an evening match and you might miss the last bus or something. I have a mate who is a season ticket holder and he doesn't get home until beyond 12 after an evening KO. He stays until the end though.

I agree. Bit disappointing to see everyone pouring out again, I generally stay to the end just as I did yesterday, as you say it's fucking expensive and I'd rather get the full experience win, lose or draw. I might make a move in stoppage time if we're winning comfortably but I'll never head out with 10 minutes remaining or something like that. A lot can happen in that time and if you're a player trying your hardest to get back into a game, seeing people filter out must be pretty demoralising and subconsciously you wonder if the players just switch off when they see that.

If you're coming from up north or something and simply have no choice but to make your last train then fair enough I guess but I know for a fact these are London based fans too.

[Marc Overmars]

Yeah agreed, just don't think the players played as if they wanted to impress the manager which is the normal thing that happens when someone new comes in, that for me shows a lack of hunger and complacency.

I think we were just done over by a far superior team. They have better players in pretty much every position.

It's way too early to be talking about a lack of hunger, desire etc. Let them find their feet first under the new regime.

[Özim]

I don’t think it was a case of lack of desire. Not all players. City just managed to keep us pinned back in our own half. Not all teams will take that approach and they won’t all be capable of playing that way. Those that try to replicate may find themselves vulnerable and more open at the back. We still have to see how we cope when we have the ball and what we do with it.

Losing is never great but I’ve seen us lose by a wider margin when pinned back like that with way more individual blunders when defending. Under Wenger, I believe that game would have been over in the first half. Well, it was last season.

I didn't think the team played like a team who were keen to impress personally, not enough energy, that wasn't everyone of course, but quite a number of them.

To be honest City should have beaten us by a cricket score, they played us off the park and missed a host of chances and then took their foot off the gas in the 2nd half somewhat, so the scoreline doesn't really reflect their dominance, we were lucky we didn't concede a lot more. There were some bad errors, Guendouzi and that Cech error - which he got really lucky with, could easily have been much worse, the fact it wasn't was due to luck rather than judgment.

It was the 1st game and we expected to lose but personally I wanted to see a bit more urgency and hunger, like Guendouzi showed basically.