On of them days. If players like Matt target and Danny ings plays like Roberto Carlos and Miroslav Klose respectively its gonna be hard.
Cant really blame the defense for obvious reasons.
Wonder crosses aside we didnt controle the tempo of the game at all and saints got the ball in dangerous areas way to easily for my liking.
This was always going to be a process and i still trust emery to the fullest. The improvement done already is more than expected personally. On to the next game COYG !
Iāve had a wonderful day in Disney World with the better half buying baby clothes for our daughter (who doesnāt even have a functioning set of legs yet) and am still furious we lost.
Even with such a bad set of CB options I think this is the first time Emery got his lineup wrong and our strikers didnāt bail us out in the second half. Iām really worried about Iwobi over the next few weeks. Weāre going to need him to play well and produce. Iām actually really worried about the team in general over the next few weeks with the fixture congestion and injuries. We do a lot of running and I hope Emery hasnāt underestimated the crushing nature of the December schedule. Iād like to hope for a bounce back performance in the Cup but Iād really rather just not have any new injuries!
Just some thoughts on yesterdayās gameā¦
Everything we ever feared about Leno is basically coming to fruition. Heās indecisive and culpable for several of the goals we have conceded this season. No amount of good passing and reflexes can make up for the sheer indecisiveness. His weakness on crosses and failure to come off his line and be more commanding is going to be heavily exploited this season by any team with height and physicality. A totally disappointing signing and whilst I donāt believe in writing people off early, heās looking more and more like our very own version of Karius as each week passes by.
Itās a strange decision to me that Emery persisted with playing a formation heavily centred of having several fit defenders. Weāre missing Sokratis, Mustafi, Holding and Mavropanos yet persisted with having 3 central defenders. This consequently meant we ended up having a mid-30s right back and a deep lying playmaker with questionable defensive ability pairing a 33 year old CB coming off the back of a serious injury and making his first competitive appearance in 6 months. It was just strange decision making and Southampton only played with 1 centre forward so I canāt see the logic in it to be honest.
Alex Iwobi polarises opinion amongst Arsenal fans. Some (like me) donāt rate him and donāt think he should be starting games for Arsenal. Others think his ceiling is high. I think itās important to be patient with young players but not to the point where it detriments the team. He doesnāt really offer much in the final third and would be better suited to a deeper role on the pitch where he isnāt expected to have as much influence in the final third. To have just 1 goal and 2 assists in 14 outings is indicative of his lack of quality in the final third.
January couldnāt come soon enough. Signing a new winger is so important. We just donāt have the quality out wide and weāre not stretching teams or penetrating defences as well as we would if we just had a good quality winger. Southampton full backs rarely looked troubled and they were there for the taking yesterday.
Granit Xhaka is so important in the midfield and we missed him tremendously yesterday. As much as we can call into question his decision making and defensive positioning at times heās an excellent forward passer and heās so important in us being able to implement Emeryās playing out from the back. He helps transition from defence and attack better than anybody.
Speaking of central midfielders, I know people are high on Guendouzi, but right now all I see is a bundle of energy who plays like someone keen to prove a point rather than trying to balance how often he imposes his personality on the game and keeping it simple. So often heās holding onto the ball for so long and playing the wrong pass. Heās slowing down how we move the ball about. Not to mention he runs around almost without purpose sometimes. Should not be getting so much game time.
As much as we can praise Emery for his substitutions and changes to the way we approach the game in the second half ā the fact stands that he is constantly getting it wrong at the outset. Iām a huge fan of Emery and think he deserves a lot of praise for what heās done so far. But itās worrying that 17 games into the season we havenāt once gone into the break leading. Absolutely no problems with Emery though and with the right investment I think heās capable of good things here.
Often thereās no smoke without fire and Iām starting to believe that we are potentially seeing the phasing out of Mesut Ozil at Arsenal. Prior to his injury you could only really point to the Leicester game as being an example of him producing under Emery so far. I think thereās a clear rift there and itāll be interesting to see how 2019 pans out for Mesut at Arsenal.
Now you have started this and I like reading it Iām expecting it for every league game 
Couldnāt do it last week as I was in Dam but will definitely try to do it for every game mate!
I just realise that before they beat us last Weekend, they had only won one of their premier league games so far. All the more depressing result 
Theyāve only won two home games in the league in the whole of 2018. Someone in April and us in December 
A combination of the new manager bounce and us opening our legs innit 