The pre match talk was centered around Granit Xhaka. Emery made it clear he won’t play, but not what the future with his captaincy might be. After the Wolves game, that may not be the future he has to worry about.
Arsenal have been playing poorly and our results have been less than acceptable. Amazingly, Emery was defending our (his) home record saying we’ve only drawn two games, but won all the rest. It’s the start of the season and he’s talking about that as an achievement. He sure wasn’t doing that after the game, when the pressure really was on him.
Ozil was restored to the starting line-up. It may not be entirely down to his influence, but some of the passing in midfield looked more fluid than in previous games (some EL games excepted). All the same, the tactics seemed to be passive, inviting Wolves pressure, and hoping to catch them on the counter. It sort of worked in the first half.
The first 15 minutes or so Wolves looked dangerous but gradually we got some control, and it culminated in some neat link up play between Lacazette and Aubameyang, with the latter providing a controlled finish to score his 50th goal for the club. What a great signing he’s been for us.
We had a couple of more chances to extend the lead, but they were either blocked or went off target. Interestingly, the midfield of Guendouzi, Torreira, Ceballos AND Ozil, often saw Lucas Torreira the furthest forward, and taking some of these shots.
Wolves had a few half chances, and forced Leno into a good save too, but the first half ended with us in the lead, and some relatively decent midfield control.
Anyone who thought this would last hasn’t been paying attention. Due to some technical glitches, my match preview wasn’t submitted in time. But I’d written:
“I’m predicting a fast start, followed by the coach pulling us back, and then we concede. Hopefully we recover to sneak a winner even if that happens. But I’m going for a draw.”
It was almost amusing watching the meltdown among the fans on Twitter. I wasn’t angry because this is exactly what I expected to happen.
Bizarre substitutions
What was unexpected though, were Emery’s substitutions. Twice in 4 days he took off Lucas Torreira when the need was to protect a lead. What threw me was that he actually brought on Saka. An attacking substitution from Emery? Inevitably, it wasn’t the right time and 3 minutes later, in the 76th minute, Raul Jimenez popped up to score the Wolves equaliser.
The bizarreness wasn’t done there as with only 3 minutes remaining in normal time Emery substituted one full back (Tierney) for another (Kolasinac) while Pepe sat on the bench. I’m not even going to try and assess what was going through Emery’s mind here.
The last 15 minutes saw a spurt of activity from the Arsenal players, and reportedly a sudden spurt of inactivity from the Arsenal coach. Maybe the two are related? It’s hard not to draw that conclusion. Clearly many of the Arsenal faithful have done just that.
The fans weren’t happy with yet another poor result and performance based on the booing that went up around the ground as the game ended.
Not good enough
What must be especially concerning and infuriating is that this is no accident. This is how our coach wants to play the great game of football. A lot of his backers have tried to deny this is the case, blaming the poor performances on Wenger, lack of new signings, referees, injuries, etc. The latest promise was ‘once we get our fullbacks back.’ Giving lie to all the nonsense, in his post-game presser Emery admitted:
“It’s a bad result, but tactically it worked how we wanted”
Emery sounded defiant in the presser but to me he looked very dejected.
Asked about his future, he avoided the question.
He was on the verge of losing his cool when asked if the players even understand his instructions. He kept his composure somehow and moved on.
I won’t deny that I felt some sympathy for him there. These are not easy questions to face. If it weren’t for his poor man management and tendency to throw blame at others, I might even be more patient with him. I don’t doubt that he wants to do well.
But he’s just not good enough to be at Arsenal. It’s beyond him. Every week that goes by proves it more and more, even when somehow we eke out the result.
As it is, we’re now 6 points behind TransferBan FC in our quest for the top 4. It could, as well, have been a lot worse. There’s nowhere to hide now because it’s become clear this is not an aberration. It’s the Emery-plan.
Over to Josh and Raul
So what next? Surely our ‘ruthless’ New Arsenal which cares nothing for trivialities such as loyalty and their word, should have no problem firing the coach in this situation? Unless there is some other reason, financial or political, to keep him around.
I only saw this after the game, but the Arsenal media team, who are now shamelessly posting Ozil content again, had a short video of him meeting and shaking hands with Thierry Henry. I know am not alone in this, but my immediate thought was that they might be planning to have Henry take over as manager till the end of the season. I really hope not. I’d rather they gave it to Freddie. He’s done more to earn it. But I don’t believe the club will do the right thing any more.
Henry was rumoured to be Josh Kroenke’s man and in line to succeed Wenger. I think that was headed off by Gazidis. In the end, it is reported that Raul’s suggestion of Emery won universal approval. I am uneasy that Josh and co will simply turn back to Henry once it becomes clear to them that Emery has to go. I’m not even sure if that reality has sunk in for them yet. Will it? Or will they brazen it out till the end of the season?
Vitoria next in the EL, followed by Leicester before the international break. I suspect that is when we’ll find out what this club’s plans are. Until then, we can only wait and hope against abandoned hope that we’ll still get some good results and decent football.
Thanks Shard.
You were almost the first commentator online to helpfully identify this self confessed “Chameleon” style of Football last season for those of us fortunate enough not to have lost hours of our lives watching Emery’s Valencia, PSG etc attempt to play Football.
And as fans and followers of those clubs highlighted previously the simple fact is in football you cannot be a coward sorry I mean Chameleon.
The reason why you could make such a simple and accurate prediction in your match preview is because it’s exactly the same thing as we saw in Unai’s second match against Chelsea, or the final against Chelsea.
In both contests although his team were set up to play different “tactics” and “formations” he does the same thing.
Every single time.
The Arsenal Holes droned on about Groundhog Day when they were seeing different things every week. They didn’t know what they were talking about.
Emery freaked or freaks out at halftime, everytime. He dropped or drops his pants and tried or tries to fix his anchor and yet every time the poor footballers on the football pitch only resemble poor galley slaves sinking down into the depths along with Unai’s ship.
But as we have discussed here since last season, the biggest idiot at the club is the person who appointed Emery. And it looks like it was always their plan to bring in Jose. Sabotage? Is that too gentle a word to describe Raul’s work at the Arsenal? Who fan defend this man’s record at the club? No one can.
Which is why the “I Really Like Raul” fanboys have been talking about Emery being outfoxed by Ozil’s PR and not the head of Football Relations.
The leaks from the dressing room about Emery this week probably came from the man who hired him, who has always had Jose lined up to be his main man. Raul who destroyed the reputation of Barcelona in the game, what is he doing to the Arsenal? When will the big Arsenal online accounts point out the bleeding obvious. That Daddy Raul is bleeding the club?
Spot on Fins. Btw you have been right about this travesty for months. Every prediction you made that Raul will destroy this club based on his dubious history at Barcelona (Neymar, Paulinho transfers anyone) has come to pass. I have no doubt he is maneuvering to get Mourinho and Mendes on the inside so we can become the money-laundering, agent-loving center of the football world. The “wolves are howling” indeed.
Notice that there has been no criticism for the contract status of Aubameyang. This is when Raul hmself had sat in front of a camera, after Ramsey revealed his duplicity, and opined it was poor contract management from Wenger and Gazidis. That no one in his reign would be allowed to enter the last two years of contract without being sold.
The cheap barefaced lie about the Ramsey contract beig poorly handled aside, this is a clear deliverable that he promised. But, happily, more and more people seem to get it. I thought they were slick PR agents. But turns out as they run out of the ability to blame Wenger, their message isn’t working anymore. Even the big bloggers are protecting their reputations and starting to put at least the Emery situation on upper management.
To all those fans who fell in love with the Arsenal for its values, not merely to brag about winning games and trophies, I have changed the tagline, the mission statement of this blog to the following:
“For positive, attractive football by a club with integrity and class.”
We may be few in numbers in terms of posters but I am convinced we represent millions.