Unai Emery: Adios

[Hunta]

People will rightly start getting on Emery's back, just like they did with Wenger when the results dried up.

Just seems at the minute people moan if we win and moan if we lose?

People are moaning because just like last season the results are covering the poor football. Just like last season our strikers will stop covering the cracks.

People can just see past the results, that’s all.

 

[MutableEarth]

People are moaning because just like last season the results are covering the poor football. Just like last season our strikers will stop covering the cracks.

People can just see past the results, that’s all.

Is it moaning or just being observant?

 

[ThlRama]

People are moaning because just like last season the results are covering the poor football.

Very few teams in the world, if any bar Man City, actually play good football right now. That's the current state of the game tbh. As an example, Liverpool play disgusting football imo, the only thing pretty in their ways is the playmaking of their fullbacks if and when it comes off.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

I think there's a sense of entitlement honestly. Arsenal fans seemingly feel entitled to play Burnley off the park with Leno grabbing a double hat-trick in a 9-0 win, and Ashley Barnes saying in the post match interview how wonderful Arsenal are as a team and individuals, and what a privilege it is for an orc like him to share a pitch with such fine specimens.

Back in the real world, the majority of games will be won by small margins, City/Liverpool included. Most of the time it comes down to clinical finishing or a bit of magic from one player.

Burnley had a good tactic, worked hard, stuck to their gameplan and lost anyway - we should be delighted.

 

[DJ_Markstar]

Is it moaning or just being observant?

Its moaning.

 

[Gooner_girl14]

Agree it's moaning. There are no "easy" games in the Premier League and IMO if we get the results despite not firing on all cylinders and some key players still unavailable, that's the type of resilience that we've been sorely lacking in recent years. IMO we looked better against Burnley than we did in our last game, and I just want us to improve each game at this stage. Our new signings look like they'll be quite useful, our young players are maturing nicely, and we still have some key players to return. Liverpool will be a much bigger test to be sure, but at this point and in the last few seasons we have not done well against them. We had a great summer and have had a solid start to the season so far. I'm delighted.

 

[akhil]

Second game of the season.
4 new players in the team.
3 of them in the spine.
2 of them are kids.

We played some good stuff for periods, these players are still figuring each other out. Judge the style after the winter break provided Emery has his full squad to work with. Bellerin, Tierney and Holding should have got their match sharpness back by then.

Honestly, I'm fine with being more pragmatic. Our left side is going to be Monreal and Luiz. If Monreal gets caught high up the pitch, he's not going to be able to recover. Luiz has no pace as it is.

 

[Ceballinhos]

People are moaning because just like last season the results are covering the poor football. Just like last season our strikers will stop covering the cracks.

People can just see past the results, that’s all.

I really don't think the football was poor yesterday. It wasn't anything like we've seen last season, especially away from home. It was an exciting game to watch with plenty of positives.

Sure it wasn't great or perfect, but the game wasn't boring. And Pope had made some v good saves too. We could have easily scored more with better finishing.

When you add the fact that we had new players starting a game for us for the first time, youngsters (Willock <3 ), some players who lack match fitness (Lacazette coming back from injury, Pepe), I genuinely don't understand all the negative opinion about yesterday's game.

This league ain't easy. It's the hardest in the world. And we're still a work in progress. I don't expect to see us reach our peak before november/december (if we don't get any injuries), with Bellerin and Tierney back who are going to bring so much. Holding might take Sokratis spot. Him + Luiz is going to be very strong playing from the back.
With Pepe, Nelson, Dani, Luiz fully settled in the team.

You can't expect us to play like City or Liverpool with so many changes in our side, with so many youngsters.

We have a pretty exciting season ahead.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

The funniest thing is that we didn't play poorly yesterday we just didn't score that many goals and in the end we hung on a bit. Believe me, like I said on the last page we played far far worse in October 2016 against Burnley at Turf Moor than we played yesterday, FAR worse.

If yesterday was playing poorly then the standards are just ridiculously high, maybe people have the same standards since 2004 I don't know.

 

[Hunta]

I can see why I left this forum, disagree with the narrative and you apparently want Leno hattricks.

Just like last season when teams like Everton and Watford (and West Ham and Fulham) should have been 2 up at the Emirates, people will excuse the performances and look at the results. Wonder if we’ll see the same **** as last season when our strikers stop scoring at a ridiculous level and it’s 50/50 whether we can beat your Brighton or Palace’s at home.

 

[Tosker]

I can see why I left this forum, disagree with the narrative and you apparently want Leno hat tricks.

Just like last season when teams like Everton and Watford (and West Ham and Fulham) should have been 2 up at the Emirates, people will excuse the performances and look at the results. Wonder if we’ll see the same **** as last season when our strikers stop scoring at a ridiculous level and it’s 50/50 whether we can beat your Brighton or Palace’s at home.

in every sport true champions are defined by their ability to win when they are not playing their best - football is no different

 

[Fewtch]

Didn't know snakes could understand football well.

Robin must’ve not heard about chameleon footy

 

[Preacher]

I can see why I left this forum, disagree with the narrative and you apparently want Leno hat tricks.

Just like last season when teams like Everton and Watford (and West Ham and Fulham) should have been 2 up at the Emirates, people will excuse the performances and look at the results. Wonder if we’ll see the same **** as last season when our strikers stop scoring at a ridiculous level and it’s 50/50 whether we can beat your Brighton or Palace’s at home.

So far I can see a difference comparing to the last season. Yeah, we still let opponents to take too much shots, but they aren't in as dangerious positions as before.

Last season Leno usually was a saviour at least once or twice per match This season during two games we let opponents have only 7 shots on target. Leno didn't have to do as much. Opponents xG both times were low. So far Emery have big emphasis on defence. He knows that this is our achilles heal. If you defending well, 1 or 2 scored goals will be enough. I believe that we will be better in attack when new players will settle in. In the two first games I saw that they aren't in sync yet. Many chances/positive attack they wasted themselves by choosing wrong option or releasing the ball to late.

Still early days. Remains to be seen how we will look against the likes of Leicester, Everton or United.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

I can see why I left this forum, disagree with the narrative and you apparently want Leno hattricks.

Just like last season when teams like Everton and Watford (and West Ham and Fulham) should have been 2 up at the Emirates, people will excuse the performances and look at the results. Wonder if we’ll see the same **** as last season when our strikers stop scoring at a ridiculous level and it’s 50/50 whether we can beat your Brighton or Palace’s at home.

You honestly think the game yesterday was comparable to the Everton or Watford games from last season? I think there's a huge difference, we started the game yesterday well for starters and were much more in control mostly. It wasn't pretty at times but I honestly think the performance was nowhere near as bad as you're making out, in fact I thought it was pretty good all in all it's just disappointing that we couldn't score a few more.

As for our strikers stopping scoring well we've got more options now with Pepe and Ceballos so chance creation should be better and Tierney/Bellerin coming in will be a huge bonus.

 

[Hunta]

You honestly think the game yesterday was comparable to the Everton or Watford games from last season? I think there's a huge difference, we started the game yesterday well for starters and were much more in control mostly. It wasn't pretty at times but I honestly think the performance was nowhere near as bad as you're making out, in fact I thought it was pretty good all in all it's just disappointing that we couldn't score a few more.

As for our strikers stopping scoring well we've got more options now with Pepe and Ceballos so chance creation should be better and Tierney/Bellerin coming in will be a huge bonus.

XG 1.2 v 1.7

Can’t be arsed going over this, people can think we were good. I think we weren’t and see signs of last season, that’s it.

 

[Preacher]

This is better source:

https://understat.com/match/11653

 

[Jae]

XG 1.2 v 1.7

Can’t be arsed going over this, people can think we were good. I think we weren’t and see signs of last season, that’s it.

Fair does mate. Nothing wrong with agreeing to disagree.

 

[say yes]

xG is great but it doesn’t give any recognition to dangerous attacks which don’t result in a shot. We had quite a few of those against Burnley.

We do need to be more creative against the weaker clubs (it’s been my one problem this season so far) but it’s still 2 good performances, 2 wins for me.

 

[say yes]

I can see why I left this forum, disagree with the narrative and you apparently want Leno hattricks.

Just like last season when teams like Everton and Watford (and West Ham and Fulham) should have been 2 up at the Emirates, people will excuse the performances and look at the results. Wonder if we’ll see the same **** as last season when our strikers stop scoring at a ridiculous level and it’s 50/50 whether we can beat your Brighton or Palace’s at home.

I was at all of those games and yesterday was nothing like that. Our defence looked solid and their only big chance (the goal) came through a lucky deflection. Big contrast to last season when teams were cutting through us like a hot knife through butter.

It wasn’t an easy victory by any means; we didn’t create enough, and I think you’re right that we should be concerned about that. Still think it was a good solid win though. The foundations look a lot sturdier than last year.

 

[Ceballinhos]

XG 1.2 v 1.7

Can’t be arsed going over this, people can think we were good. I think we weren’t and see signs of last season, that’s it.

Those stats don't say the whole story. Context matters. We've played 2 youngsters who started for the 2nd time in their career in the PL. We also had David Luiz & Ceballos starting their first game ever in an Arsenal shirt.
It was the first time ever we've played this midfield.
A third of the team that started yesterday didn't play games for us last season.
Some players only had a couple of weeks of training with our team under their belt.

And still, we were in control for most of the game, and their biggest chance, which resulted into a goal, was thanks to a lucky deflection.

You can't compare our first 2 games of the season with the Watford/Everton games where we played almost our best team, which had already a few months of playing together.
And it was a lot lot worse.

It wasn't perfect but still, it was a positive performance. We haven't won our first 2 games in 10 years mate. It's not just down to luck.

I would have been worried if we would have played our best possible team, with fully settled players in the squad.