I’ll rewatch, but we had at least as many that went close… Auba, Moose, Ramsey off the top of my head. Like I said, confirmation bias - even the commentators were saying WHU looked out of ideas for long stretches - it was really only our tragic lack of ability to deal with counters that could have killed us… I can recall one corner we had that in 3 seconds turned into comical dangerous situation (turned into nothing, but it was pathetic).
This is accurate assessment of the game
There’s alot of work that needs to be done from the midfield down. Xhaka should not be the furthest midfielder back
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They were called offside once, just once.
On my they part it was missing good chances.
The first 20-25 minutes the last 15minutes was shocking for a team like arsenal. There are positives from the game yes, but we never looked proper control.
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Which moment are you referring to then? I remember Arnautovic hitting side net (at tough angle), so maybe half-chance… and then at the very end when they dragged a cross through the middle, but Lucas was a yard or two away - still wasn’t even a shot on target though… we had plenty like that. Bellerin, as bad as he is normally, threw in a bunch of dangerous crosses that went through everyone or pinged around. I forgot our other chance on Ramsey smashing a deflection that Fabianski did brilliantly to save.
First PL win for our new manager \o/
Plenty of work to do and it is easier to do with a win under your pillow.
not arguing with the fact that we didn’t have control - it was an awful game overall… typical early season derby for me… but neither did they… they were pretty awful actually… and their goal was a great shot, but an absolute gift by our defense - no reasonable defense should allow that single player that shot like that.
Fabianski did some save for that Rambo shot. Very tricky one.
In the first half on two occasions Antonio could have squared the ball to anatrovic, in the second half had yanmelenko gamble there is a goal, Perez better shoting goal, when Anderson ran better shooting again could have been a goal.
There was other moments but these stood out the most.
Fair enough… you have me interested… I am going to go back and watch the scoring moments for each team to see if I come up with different analysis.
I still say people should not ignore the compelling stats - we had 200 more passes with 10% better accuracy, more shots, more on target, and 62/38 possession. If you still contend on all factors that WHU deserved 3 points more than us, fair play.
Whatever else, my fears about Emery being cowardly and ‘Mourinho-like’ as @AbouCuellar said, were completely unfounded.
He has been brace and is trying to get us playing attacking football.
I hope he will come back and admit he was wrong about Emery giving us shit football.
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That’s not what I am saying; what I am saying this game could have gone the other easily.
you could say that about almost every football match… given the nature of the game, it is played one way and decided on 5-10 decisive moments at each end… that is kind of the nature of the game.
If played 10 times, we win that game 8/10 times imho.
What choice does he have lol? Our defense is a shambles and so far our DM/DLP haven’t provided protection and we are tragic against counters… we better f*ing score a boatload!
It’s not his fault but the level of play at our club has dipped massively. Watching the constant wayward passing, bad first touches, and lack of mobility in a lot of our players, and a lot of the time just downright clumsiness, it doesn’t make for a fun viewing experience. Honestly feels like I’m watching a game down at the park. Insane to think we used to have guys like Bergkamp, Hleb, and Santi once upon a time. Even Nasri would be an upgrade atm.
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Well I think the agenda for style of play comes from Gazidis, not Emery so it’s probably too soon to assume this is how it’ll be forever.
Conte tried to play differently when he started at Chelsea but then when it didn’t work he reverted to exactly what he was comfortable with, so we’ll have to wait and see.
Sure we can try to play, but a lot of the moves break down over basic things like misplaced passes and bad touches and we’re still excruciating to watch. We were such a mess that this could have easily been a loss.
I’m more than happy to give him time but I’m starting to worry he’s placing the “play football” brief over his own ideas because what we’ve seen so far really does not look anything like “Organised, then play” to me. It might explain why he is reluctant to start a defensive player like Torreira over the offensive passing Xhaka, despite him clearly wanting to get Torreira on the pitch.
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Honestly I think Torreira is better offensively for us than Xhaka as well… he at least thinks quicker and has shown the ability to see the great channel ball - he also has a nice crispness to his passes which I like to see. Xhaka did ok today tbf, but yeah, I want to see Torr and Gooz for now.
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I feel Guen’s instant induction into the 11 kinda speaks to this too. Emery wants to fulfil the mandate from Ivan of integrating youth so he’s given Guen a place in the 11 against very tough opposition to show his willingness to develop young talent despite not really being a great developer of youth at Seville .
Obviously Guen hasn’t completely stunk up the place at all but I can’t say many other managers would trust a 19 year old through a difficult start ahead of Elneny or Torreira.
I really want to see the organisation come through rather than Emery conform to ideals which don’t match his own. Maybe the PSG experience scarred him? As a result he’s less likely to force his ideals through and go with what the club and players are use to?
I’d be surprised if Gaz is influencing this sort of thing that much at this point… it would be counter-productive beyond “broad guidelines” and “philosophy”… how do you hold your manager accountable if you are micro-managing at that level?
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As in the the ideals Ivan discussed in the Wenger leaving presser were demanded as part of the interview process and will be subject to review at the end of his deal. I haven’t got a clue if that how it work though
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I like that he’s willing to hook people off at half time to change things up.
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