PL: Arsenal v Manchester City | August 12th, 2018 16:00 BST | Sky Sports

[Bergkamp1988]

Ramsey Out, Xhaka Out.

Laca in, Torreira in.

Özil should play 10. I can't believe this still needs to be said.

I was moaning during the transfer window, and rightly so. We have 0 winger in our squad.... This situation is going to be a nightmare.

Shaquiri was worth nothing for god sake.

I still believe Emery will do fine but I am very frustrated about the Özil positioning. It was so obvious during the pre-season that he was useless on the flank and great in the center.

Guendouzi had some bad moments but will be great. Already like him much more then the other "young talents" Iwobi and Amn.

 

[Batman]

Well, City is just to good. Not a fair start for Emery.
Today has shown that Leno should be our no.1 instead of Cech. And Gouendouzi isn't ready to start in a Premier League match yet. Hope to see Torreira against Chelsea alongside Ramsey, with Özil at the nr. 10 spot. Özil isn't a right winger. The problem is against a side like Man City that he gets the ball at our own penalty area, because he has to defend too much. He should get a ball at the opposites' penalty area. That is when he can show his quality.

Seen some positives though. Lacazette looked quite sharp, Lichtsteiner had a good game imo and also Torreira looked like a good addition to the squad.

Not a good start, but looking forward to the Chelsea game.

P.S. First post for me at this forum. I am a big Arsenal fan from the Netherlands. Still working on my English to get better, so apologises if my grammar isn't 100% correct.

Welcome! Your English is very good, no worries at all.

 

[Impact]

Behave

I said arguably because it's far from undisputed but are you seriously suggesting that Pep would not be involved in discussions about the greatest coach ever?

 

[Coolin]

Not too disheartened by that. That’s probably the best we’ve played City in recent memory. We carved out some clear-cut chances and wobbled them a few times.

In saying that, Ramsey and Xhaka better up their game because these new boys are looking sharper and more dynamic.

 

[Maybe]

I'm quite disappointed with Emery, but at the same time everything was as expected.
You know how City play, they press high, win the ball quickly and make that constant pressure on you and PL teams just break under that pressure. Why are they bad in Europe? They play against teams that are OK with their pressure because they have quality on the ball and they don't panic. Technical players don't panic, they escape challenges and start counter's every time they get advantage on pressing player.
Looking at our team, the best player to handle pressure is Iwobi, he is bad at everything else but our best guy for shielding the ball and transition to attack.
Next, Torreira has a good combination of defensive discipline, ball control and passing, that's also description for a player who can handle pressing. The third guy is Guenduzi who has all the skills to win the ball, little burst with the ball at his feet and passing, but his body needs a bit more time to develop.
Players that are terrible under pressure are Xhaka with lack of agility and panic passing when he is surrounded , Ramsey with bad first touch and passing, and Özil who has psychological issues against top teams.
Looking at this game, Emery did just what Wenger would do, pack the team with 5 CM's and hope to have some kind ball control. But bar Mkhy and Gunzo, none of them can play that type of game.
This is not criticism of Özil and Xhaka, they will thrive in games when we have more control, when Özil will have more attackers around him without too much defensive work and Xhaka will spread passes from deep with 95% precision, but you can't expect that in game like this so what's the explanation for playing them?

I also can't understand the idea with Ramsey, would need to watch replay 5 times just to get a clue what was the plan with him as some kind of CF and Laca on the bench. This looked like a bad joke for me.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

I said arguably because it's far from undisputed but are you seriously suggesting that Pep would not be involved in discussions about the greatest coach ever?

Sir Alex and Wenger didn't spent 300M to build a team to win titles tho

 

[YeahBee]

Guendouzi and Torreira would’ve been fine with me. Need serious mobility in midfield against the likes of City and Liverpool.

And I think Guendouzi is too good of a ball winner to not be payed deeper.

Balllooser to, way to easy to displace

Needs more muscles

 

[Sniper Mik]

I'm quite disappointed with Emery, but at the same time everything was as expected.
You know how City play, they press high, win the ball quickly and make that constant pressure on you and PL teams just break under that pressure. Why are they bad in Europe? They play against teams that are OK with their pressure because they have quality on the ball and they don't panic. Technical players don't panic, they escape challenges and start counter's every time they get advantage on pressing player.
Looking at our team, the best player to handle pressure is Iwobi, he is bad at everything else but our best guy for shielding the ball and transition to attack.
Next, Torreira has a good combination of defensive discipline, ball control and passing, that's also description for a player who can handle pressing. The third guy is Guenduzi who has all the skills to win the ball, little burst with the ball at his feet and passing, but his body needs a bit more time to develop.
Players that are terrible under pressure are Xhaka with lack of agility and panic passing when he is surrounded , Ramsey with bad first touch and passing, and Özil who has psychological issues against top teams.
Looking at this game, Emery did just what Wenger would do, pack the team with 5 CM's and hope to have some kind ball control. But bar Mkhy and Gunzo, none of them can play that type of game.
This is not criticism of Özil and Xhaka, they will thrive in games when we have more control, when Özil will have more attackers around him without too much defensive work and Xhaka will spread passes from deep with 95% precision, but you can't expect that in game like this so what's the explanation for playing them?

I also can't understand the idea with Ramsey, would need to watch replay 5 times just to get a clue what was the plan with him as some kind of CF and Laca on the bench. This looked like a bad joke for me.

Some really good points. I agree with Ramsey, think Emery tried to be a bit too clever there. As for the Xhaka over Torreira and Cech over Leno selections, I think he's trying to retain a bit of the continuity from last season and trying respect the seniority of the players. Maybe Torreira wasn't fit enough to start today, he did go further with his country than Xhaka, we don't know. But Xhaka being hauled off before the end, should give you an idea of what Emery thought of his performance. You don't usually make a like for like substitution in midfield of all places when you are 2-0 down at home. Emery's got to be braver in his decisions.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

This is a wild guess but I think Emery's just trying to respect Cech's seniority if nothing else. He also did fairly well in preseason. Making him one of the 5 captains also didn't help. But he'll turn to Leno soon enough. Cech's poor distribution is putting our defenders under immense pressure.

You may be right but I have a suspicion that he won't play Leno in the first two games where we play better teams in case things go wrong. Which might raise some concerns regarding Leno's mentality. Who knows.

 

[krengon]

Only managed to watch a few minutes here and there, but really disappointing result.. At home against City not at full strength and less than ideal preparation, a loss is hard to take. Was expecting much more, and the stats don’t read that good as well.

 

[Batman]

I said arguably because it's far from undisputed but are you seriously suggesting that Pep would not be involved in discussions about the greatest coach ever?

We still don't really know how good a coach he really is. The guy has won in 3 ways. Inheriting Spain's golden generation and one of the 5 best players ever in Messi. Going to Bayern Munich where my dog could manage a team to the title(and actually underachieving in Europe compared to the prior manager). And now coming to City and spending nearly 400m on players. Nobody else in the discussion of best ever manager has spent anywhere near that obscene amount(not even in adjusted figures) or been gifted with 3 situations that favorable. He's obviously a smart guy with a good tactical mind but could he be the same caliber of manager without massive amounts of luck and financial/institutional advantages? His performances in Europe since leaving Barca suggest no.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

 

[HBL]

Cech - 6
Bellerin -5
Mustafi - 6
Sokratis - 7
AMN - 4
Xhaka - 5
Guendouzi - 7
Mkhi - 4
Ramsey - 5
Özil - 4
Aubameyang -5

Lichtsteiner - 7
Lacazette - 6
Torreira - 6

 

[Sanis]

19 year old from ligue 2 looks better than Xhaka, who should be nowhere near first 11

 

[Sniper Mik]

You may be right but I have a suspicion that he won't play Leno in the first two games where we play better teams in case things go wrong. Which might raise some concerns regarding Leno's mentality. Who knows.

I have the same suspicion. The only saving grace is that Leno's still fairly young for a keeper. And his attributes are more suited to us in the long run. Even Ederson who's probably one of the best keepers in the world with his distribution made some shocking errors.

 

[Maybe]

As for the Xhaka over Torreira and Cech over Leno selections, I think he's trying to retain a bit of the continuity from last season and trying respect the seniority of the players

I think you don't wont too much continuity from your worst season in 20 years, and the worst thing is, we saw this type of game so many times in recent years. For a guy who supposedly watched a lot of videos, you would expect that he saw this pattern already and that he would change something.

 

[krengon]

Top 4 should be bare minimum imo, I'll be very upset if we don't get it with this team.

Not sure why some here seems so desperate to accept mediocrity.. Squad was already good enough to get top 4 and no matter what I think of the recruitment, it’s even stronger now. As you said top 4 should be the bare minimum, if we fail to win trophies as well it’s a failure of a season

 

[Big Poppa]

I said arguably because it's far from undisputed but are you seriously suggesting that Pep would not be involved in discussions about the greatest coach ever?

Until he inherits a club that doesn't have unlimited resources, a generation-defining level of talent or an existing monopoly in it's league I will reserve judgement. Has a mediocre record in the CL considering the players and teams he's managed. Watch him go to PSG next.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Neville is right in what he says.

We're basically in the Klopp 2015 and Pochettino 2014 phases of their jobs at Liverpool and Sp**s respectively. We've brought in a few players, we've spent the last number of weeks trying to get ideas across but it takes quite a bit of time to truly get to where you want to be. Like Neville said 3/4 windows to get the team that Emery wants. Klopp started off relying on Origi as his striker with no real wingers, mediocre defenders, Moreno as a full-back and Mignolet in goals. It take him 2/3 windows to really start molding the team he wanted. Now look at them almost 3 years on, they're now in a title challenging position. It could even take longer for us depending on how much Emery is backed but it's an indicator of how far we have to go. We need to trust the process and back the manager and his team.

 

[Sanchez11]

The main positive thing about this match was unsettling them that period before they got the 2nd.