Not convinced about any of out defensive players at all tbh. Still feels they’ve got plenty of errors in them.
The defensive system and structure hasn’t really taken shape yet either
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If we’re just judging by these first preseason matches (which isn’t fair I know)…just the guys on the bench actually interacting with each other and giving the appearance of enjoying themselves is a positive. I know there was a team spirit in the past but I always felt like it was more of a “everyone hates the manager let’s use that to get pissed off and mad”…this appears to be not that.
Kinda agree. There was high levels of team spirt with Wenger but it was under the cloud of managerial and performance failure with tons of outside criticism/dissatisfaction.
I think Emery has maintained the same or greater levels of spirit which is interesting because alot of people thought the environment Wenger fostered was not conducive to a competitive squad.
Personally, I was expecting a more disruptive approach to the existing squad in order to force a reset of their mentalities. Certainly handing out contracts to questionable players and having few outgoings doesn’t do that.
Maybe Emery feels having the squad ‘onside’ will make them more receptive to his ideas rather than a taking an authoritarian approach. Seeing how the squad responds to adversity over the coming season will be interesting
We’ll see about the team spirit. I don’t think a team with team spirit goes through the prolonged periods of giving up that we’ve witnessed in the past two seasons. Hopefully there’s a turnaround this year because IMO that’s what’s been costing us 10 points a season.
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Considering they are starting from zero in terms of defensive cohesion it’s not at all surprising, Emery hasn’t had long to instill much in the players apart from actually pressing.
It’ll take more time.
I think we’re roughly looking at nearly a season for him to implement his style on the team. Klopp’s Liverpool didn’t look like much in his first season and he makes them play high intensity football.
I’m really not expecting a great deal from us this season, just want to enjoy a fresh approach to things and see how it unfolds.
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I’m hoping when Toreira joins the squad that will add an element of defensive cohesion with him protecting the back four.
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I’m willing to wait two to three seasons for Emery to fully implement his tactics. It’s very early days so I’m not expecting much from the team but it will be a failed season if we’re not in the Champions league next year, simple.
There’s enough talent in this squad to secure CL football this season for sure.
The squad needs to get up to speed quickly because we really need to be competitive in the league this season, CL football is vital. We don’t want to normalise Thursday night football
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They made the Europa final though. There was signs of improvement id say that first season from October when he came in.
Rather than that I think it just points to team spirit not actually counting for much in the grand scheme of things. Not on it’s own anyway.
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With the talk of how the negative vibes around the Man United camp will affect their season, I don’t see why positive vibes and team unity can’t help ours.
There is a feel good factor around Arsenal again, the players look like they’re having fun and i’m enjoying seeing things like Aubameyang and Laca’s bromance and all the dancing in the training videos and on the touchline.
Of course you need more than that, but a happy camp and good team spirit is a good place to start.
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That’s fair, we did however, make it to the semi’s under the horrible standards Wenger let the team get into though.
I’m keeping my expectations low and I think we’ll see bit-by-bit as the weeks go on through the season, Emery’s style envelop on the team. Moving them away from an almost languid style might take longer than expected. There’s still a standard to be met however and I don’t want to see us getting easily spanked easily by anyone in the league really. We still remain in the periphery of the big clubs in this league and I expect us to be dicking most in this league.
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If Emery manages to get 10 points more out of this squad we’d be an immediate title contender. I highly doubt he will make that of us.
Defensive football is usually more easy to implement than what Wenger was trying to do.
You’re aware we got 63 points last year right? 
But anyway the point is we were title contenders. For something like 6 of the past 10 years we’ve been title contenders for something like 40-70% of a season. A couple of years ago we had something like 87 points over the course of 38 games didn’t we? Except it was something like February - January rather than August - May. A team capable of doing that over 38 games is capable of competing for a title.
We’d often have periods of being top of the form table, it’s just those periods might come after an awful start in which case it doesn’t really get noticed, or it comes when we’re among the top teams and then rapidly disappear.
Maybe that was just Wenger’s style and ability making us that good briefly and Emery won’t be able to reproduce that but I don’t think this squad is as bad as people may believe. If we can be a team capable of holding on maybe one of these years we’ll get a bit lucky but while we’re a team incapable of handling that pressure we’ll have no chance.
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Even for how bad last season was I think it was a bit of an anamoly and probably didn’t represent the actual quality of the squad.
I think about you are talking about the winners of the calender year in 2015 thing? Those stats don’t really work for me to be honest without some perspective. I mean, which teams did we play during those stretches? How many home/away games did we have during those stretches?
I think where we have finished in the past 5-6 years is actually a fair representation of the quality of the squad at the time and the manager who was managing. It has to be seen if Emery can improve on that.
Am I getting deja vu, or have I read posts 912-916 before? And in that order?
@Craigie the last time we got 87 points plus was the invincibles year. We havent been over 80 points since 07/08 when we finished 3rd.
80 points plus is what I would look for this season to make it a success.
Sorry just re-read your post, I see what you mean now. We just have to do it for a proper season 
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Lol at Pires still being there.
Managers and players come and go, but Pires turning up at Colney despite not having a job there will forever be a constant
#SquattersRights
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