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

[SingmeasongSong]

I think many people on here have really really unrealistic expectations.

You've seen Guardiola having an okay first season at City after spending 250m for an already great squad, but expect Emery to hit the ground running after two very bad seasons of us with a fraction to spend.

You could clearly see the work done in pre-season. Fitness looks great all around and the defense has improved immensely. Musti and Sokratis deserve a 2 for their overall performance, not too much wrong there.

I think the next steps over the course of the season will be to build on that development at the back and additionally put a lot of work on build-up play and counter attacking football.

Pressing has developed as well and will and should be a major thing to work on as well.

 

[Garrincha]

holy crap
agent Helmet is doing it again
why can't he do one?

He did really well save wise but really bad with his feet. Could have been 4-0 easily without him.

 

[Finesse]

Remember this was City. The Champions
It was not the best game for a new manager. However a lesser opposition and a win would have been okay to build up. We would learn hard and have Chelsea next.

Positives are tactical! First and foremost is the high pressing. We will mature into it slowly and it will become natural.

Secondly we want to play from the back and use the keeper as the start point. Excellent option but Cech will not be that keeper. I see why Leno was bought and he should be used from next game.

We need a midfield anchor man. It looks like Torreira or Douzy. I prefer Torreira and Douzy alongside. Hand on my heart Xhaka has done nothing before and will do nothing in the future to be the linchpin in our midfield. He is not good enough. Period.

Unai just let me down by running down his summer without getting at least an out and out wide man. Özil and Mkhitaryan cannot the wide players to flourish in that system. It is criminal to try that. City had Riyad and Raheem. Imagine Pep playing Kevin and Silva as wingers! His system would break.

Based on the above I have no critic for Özil and Mhki today. They could not do better. Just one of them should be on at any time and it must be a central role.

Despite the above we should have taken one chance at least. Laca should be starting.

We have a long way to go guys!

 

[OnlyOne]

Lacazette
Auba Iwobi
Özil
Doozy Torreria
Welbeck Sokratis Mustafi Lichsteiner
Cech

Vs Chelsea please.

Leno for Cech and it's perfect.

 

[Marmaduke]

Guendouzi the most touches.

Sky pundits showing Xhaka at fault for the first goal.

Guen made some sloppy mistakes but he's got some confidence to take the game to city considering his (lack of) experience. I don't like being hyperbolic about youngsters but I am really liking the guys attitude.

Also real shame about AMN, he is the other youngster I really like.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

The game went pretty much as expected. I liked our performance in the first 15-20 mins of the second half. Chelsea next, hopefully we can get a draw.

 

[SingmeasongSong]

Lacazette
Auba Iwobi
Özil
Doozy Torreria
Welbeck Sokratis Mustafi Lichsteiner
Cech

Vs Chelsea please.

Pretty good line-up

 

[Sniper Mik]

We've developed an inferiority complex against these teams because of the last few years. Will take a while for Emery to get that belief flowing through the team. That's one of the reasons why the new recruits didn't play with any fear.

 

[Marmaduke]

I see Iwobi on a lot of wishlists for lineups... why?

His last year and WC was mediocre at best, I would assume we want him to prove himself to get in.

 

[Impact]

Perspective is the name of the game.

We played against the recording breaking (100 points) Premier League champions coached by arguably the best manager in the history of football in their third season under his tutelage. It was always going to be a tough ask for us to hit the ground running, particularly with our situation at left-back, made worse by losing our second choice deputy early in the game.

Emery has only been head coach for a couple of months, not to mention that a couple of key players have been around for less of that time (Thinking Özil and Torreira).

What we saw were signs of what will take time (and importantly, quality recruits to implement): a commitment to building from the back; spirited and co-ordinated pressing; compact and resilient defensive organisation and a desire to keep going (heads only dropped momentarily in the game). None of the goals conceded can be directly attributed to structural or individual errors, which as an improvement too.

We need to be patient and give Emery and the players the atmosphere and room to implement his philosophy, otherwise progress during this transition will be stifled.

 

[Bergkamp120]

Lacazette
Auba Ramsey
Özil
Guendouzi Torreria
Monreal Sokratis Mustafi Bellerin
Leno

Lichsteiner for Monreal if he's not match fit. Xhaka and Miki need to sit.

 

[carter777]

 

[c00lguy]

Cech made some mistakes but also stopped us from losing 5-0 with some quality saves to be fair.

 

[Artisan]

Lacazette
Auba Iwobi
Özil
Doozy Torreria
Welbeck Sokratis Mustafi Lichsteiner
Cech

Vs Chelsea please.

I'd like to see a Ramsey - Torreira partnership first, Ramsey may not do much defensively but based on today we can use one more attacking body. Also considering both Bellerin and Lich looked good today in their position, I hope they keep their place. Unless Monreal is back already.

 

[Marmaduke]

The game went pretty much as expected. I liked our performance in the first 15-20 mins of the second half. Chelsea next, hopefully we can get a draw.

Get exposed as much as possible by the big teams I say. The season will be a WIP so the more lessons we learn early the better.

 

[Ceballinhos]

I agree.
As much as I love and I have respect for Wenger, he has left our squad in a pretty bad shape.

It's gonna be hard to catch up when we are getting outspent by the likes of Fulham and West Ham.

There's an obvious lack of talent and some players got way too comfortable under him.

As love as I love Özil and I think he's a talented player, he has to get his **** together. He has to bring a minimum to the team when he isn't in his day.

 

[skip spence]

We used to roll over in these games. They had two great finishes, I'm not concerned.

They won comfortably without really playing that well and missing several star players.

Would be an achievement to get top 4 with this team.

Too many players with insufficient quality.

Thinking back I find it amazing how Santi Cazorla used to elevate us to an almost-challenging level.

When he was lost so were we.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

This was probably the worst possible matchup for our first game under Emery. Can guarantee if it were 'Pool or United with a new manager they'd be playing the bottom half for the first two months as well.

 

[<<reed>>]

He did really well save wise but really bad with his feet. Could have been 4-0 easily without him.

Yeah, I see, 8 shots on target for City

 

[Impact]

Would also add that you can see how unsuited some of our players are to Emery's preferred style. Cech (although on balance, he had a good game), Sokratis and Mustafi are not good enough at the highest level to play a progressive passing game.