Match Reaction v Watford (away).

[Mac76]

There was, at best, a tiny, tiny improvement last year. We got 7 more points than the previous season although that was Wenger's worst ever season by some distance, the season before that we got 75, 5 more than last season.
Many of the same failings were evident last year - collapsing when 3rd place was up for grabs, awful defence - we conceded the same number of goals as the previous season. No captain to speak of.
We got to the final of the Europa instead of the semi-final but lost it limply.

Now, fair enough, you have to give a new manager some time to work with a squad and I think while we were all a bit underwhelmed by his first season we were mostly of the opinion that it was only fair to give him more of a chance to sort things out.
But he had another summer to sort out the defence and signed Luiz who has been awful so far. The captain situation remains equally ridiculous. Ozil...God alone knows what's going on there, he's getting less out of Ozil than Wenger did.

The more extreme views towards the end of Wenger's reign were that he was so inept that anyone would immediately do significantly better. Well that hasn't happened.
It's early yet and we are on the same points as the 3rd place team, only 2 points behind City. Probably not sensible to be pressing panic buttons just yet. But losing a 2 goal lead at the bottom placed team which with such an inept 2nd half display...it's not great, is it?

no, but Wenger had to go if only to move him on and reinstate the principle that there was a price to pay for failure - and now we've done that it should be much easier to decide now that Emery has to pay that price too...

[Marc Overmars]

no, but Wenger had to go if only to move him on and reinstate the principle that there was a price to pay for failure - and now we've done that it should be much easier to decide now that Emery has to pay that price too...

Yep.

If no impact is made, then it is time to try again. Hire and fire until we get it right, like every club does.

[Özim]

Yep.

If no impact is made, then it is time to try again. Hire and fire until we get it right, like every club does.

Totally agree, I was never convinced Emery would be the answer given his record and so far it's proving to be the case.

If we don't qualify for the CL again we may struggle again as we've already allocated a fair amount of our budget for next summer signing players this summer by paying the transfer in installments, hence the reason we spent very little this summer.

I wouldn't be against getting rid now to be honest, the thing that bothers me a lot is the lack of a real system and the terrible decisions he's been making, I know Bellerin and Tierney are due to come back, but neither will be match fit and at the peak of their ability for quite a while and Tierney has never played at this level.

The issue isn't just the personnel though, it's the fact he can't seem to spot the fact there's massive gaps appearing during a match and change the tactics to close them, Watford and Spurs found so much room to run into, it shouldn't be too hard for a manager to address, unfortunately this seems to be beyond Emery.

Last season Watford played us of the park (we did beat them luckily in our only win in 8 at the tail end of last season) and to me it looks like Emery didn't learn a thing.

[Özim]

Although no, not really. But to all the people who went on and on about what a bumbling idiot ™ he was and how anyone, literally anyone, would do better.
Well we've got literally anyone now and it's the same failings.

All that said, I agree with MO and will stick to my "judge him at the end of the season" stance. Top 4 or bust this year, we have the resources, Chelsea and Utd look like a mess so there's no reason we can't finish above them. I don't think there's much between us and Spurs.

Emery got rid of a lot of deadwood, Wenger would have never done that, so he's certainly an improvement in that respect.

[Letters]

Emery got rid of a lot of deadwood, Wenger would have never done that, so he's certainly an improvement in that respect.

In your previous post you say that's the only thing he's got right

For me the blame lies firmly on Emerys' door, right now I don't know what he's improved, our defence is as bad if not worse, we're making more mistakes if anything, the lineups are often wrong, his subs are dreadful and his blind faith in Xhaka is puzzling to say the least.

Doesn't sound like you think there's been much improvement...

[Letters]

no, but Wenger had to go if only to move him on and reinstate the principle that there was a price to pay for failure - and now we've done that it should be much easier to decide now that Emery has to pay that price too...

No argument there.
Wenger had become hard to get rid of because of his legacy, now that's gone it's easier.
I'd still give Emery this season, the glass half full way of looking things is we're 2 points off City, only Liverpool are doing significantly better so far. I suspect City and Liverpool will be the top 2 again, after that I don't think there's much between Spurs, Chelsea, Utd and us. It'll be the 2 least bad who end up in the top 4 but it's just as possible that will be us as them.

[Özim]

In your previous post you say that's the only thing he's got right



Doesn't sound like you think there's been much improvement...

Defensively no, but I think he's keener to play Aubameyang and Lacazette (Wenger never seem that keen of the latter). On the pitch I'm not going to lie it's not great, but he's done some things Wenger would have never done and perhaps signed and sold players Wenger would have never done so that's a positive.

I was never convinced he was the right choice as I thought we needed an elite manager to take us forward, but at least he's put some changes forward that have been good.

[Bumble]

Plus point Mustafi isn't playing however, we are still conceding sloppy goals and penalties.... Xhaka next to be axed.

I still think we should be getting 4th and anything less should get Emery fired. However, it was one point than City got this weekend and only 7 points off top which is closer than we finished last year.

[LDG]

I’d bin Emery now.

He doesn’t seem to have a clue what he’s doing.

[Blink 1nce Quince 2wice]

I'm not pleased with what I've seen but think we should be waiting and reassessing at Christmas.

He's allowed too many error prone players to be a fundamental part of his plans to drop them all, so he's made a right pickle for himself.