That was always just about best case frankly… I am not jumping up and down for joy, but the criticism given all the circumstances seems way over the top (not saying you in particular). Add to that he inherited 95% of the squad and it is his first season and hasn’t had a single transfer window after more experience with the squad yet… I think it is fair to criticize him for some things (I have done, for example our inconsistent “pressing” and lack of discipline in some situations), but I also think it is appropriate to be balanced.
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We have had some good performances, but I will agree performances overall have been poor, yet here we sit 3 points out of 4th… no teams are very consistent this year… and our performances last year were at least equally shambolic… again, it is just trying to put all this in context.
Add to that 3 starting defenders are out, 2 long-term… that is pretty brutal for any squad.
Suarez has just arrived 
. Harsh to already call him out.
At his and our very best yeah we have a chance. However find it hard to have the faith some do that we are winning it.
Maybe Emery is concentrating on all the players needed in front of defence this season and then blitz the transfer window for defencesive players for next season. That would make sense and give us a good run at the next season.
I’m extremely curious to see where Emery will take Arsenal next season if we have reasonable health…
Same here… if we get top wing (or Suarez turns out to be that), a top defender, and another wide defender plus health it would go a long way… we still have a few transfer windows to get out of this hole though… can’t really see us anywhere near competing for titles with this lot.
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Well yeah but thats just looking at it in isolation from our point of view. The others will have their own targets and because of the weakness of our squad makes me really pessimistic. Pius as of now im not seeing the direction the board is taking this club in.
Emery obviously would have wanted us to spend and strengthen in the market, any suggestion otherwise makes no sense.
There’s no way that a manager who has a supbar squad at his disposal, particularly at the back, would be blind to this and wouldn’t want to improve us.
His job will be on the line if he doesn’t deliver eventually, and he knows this. It’s even on the line already if you look at some of our fanbase. No way is he satisfied with what he currently has. The hierarchy chose him (although two of the key decision makers are gone), they are going to have to support him this summer regardless of if we get CL or not.
Absolutely how Emery assess the squad plays a big part in my evaluation, one of my biggest grievances with Wenger was his inability to let go of players ruthlessly who let him down without fail.
If players like Mustafi don’t find their way out the door in the Summer, I don’t even know what to say.
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Im still down for giving him this season as a grace period. After a full summer and a squad more to his liking has had the chance to be formed, he’ll be getting questioned by me.
To be clear, I dont mean we can’t question him now (tactocs, lineups etc), I more mean thats when I’ll possibly start questioning his position.
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I thought he made it fairly clear last month he wants a squad with his stamp on it but was restricted by resource and circumstances. He HAS to have a chance to give it a real go next season with a summer makeover under his input.
If we can’t at least give him that I don’t see the point
I get why people are fucked off but it’s too early for me yet to be thinking of binning Emery. It might never get better than this but so be it, after 2 years we won’t renew and he’ll be off.
It’s all about progress and it’s obviously debatable if that’s being achieved right now but I’m happy to wait it out a bit longer.
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On one hand he deserves criticism for what feels like not the best lineup a lot of the time, and dodgy formations sometimes too.
But then on the other, this team is shit, and you can’t really blame the coach if he doesn’t have all the answers, then starts desperately trying to make something happen and cover our shitness by changing the lineup and trying to get something resembling his kind of team out there. There also appears to be a bit of political shit going on at the club over the last few months, but we don’t know if that’s actually affected him or not.
Really I’d say we haven’t had a real performance since the derby win 2 months ago and even before that we were blagging it a bit, so he’s been up against it for a while.
A complete back to basics Hodgsonification is off the table at this club, and in that case there’s not much to work with.
He picks Xhaka because the midfield lacks imagination, but then Xhaka often lets us down. He has to pick a back 5 when there’s maybe 1 or 2 players at the club even close to being good enough for it, and that’s before the squad is wiped out with injuries. Then arguably his best 2 players both want to play centre forward which is unfortunate.
It’ll take more than a coach’s black magic to make this defence competent and our attack functional.
I can’t see much light at the end of the tunnel right now. While 4th should still he very much possible, 6th feels most plausible.
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Which might also be tactical…he still gets praise for 10 years ago when he played two left backs and neutralized Dani Alves and got a result against Barcelona lol. Maybe he tried the same with Kolasinac.
When is it his squad? Cech, Ramsey and Welbeck are gone this summer. Last summer we got rid of Ospina, Wilshere, Mertesacker, Cazorla etc. But Arsenal are not going to turnover 10 players in one window. So we can’t judge him until season 3 or 4 in charge?
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I don’t know exactly when, but presumably you’d agree it certainly isn’t his right now wouldn’t you?
I agree, perhaps not. But you mention 7 names as I quote you below which isn’t far off 10.
It may not be in one window, but that’s still a pretty big turnaround in a year I would argue.
Tbf maybe I wasn’t clear here. You can judge him whenever you want. Not for me to say, but I would like to think he should have this summer and next season at least as an opportunity to change your judgement on him.
Edit: Wait, I got sucked into your argument. I never even said Emery needs to turnover 10 players in a window. Why am I arguing this? LOL
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The clamour to denounce Emery and proclaim that a manager who has been tasked with overhauling a 22-year dynasty has failed after just nine months is bizarre. It was a regrettable result and a dreadful second half, but that is worrying short-sightedness.
It feels like the inevitable consequence of having six clubs constantly fighting for four places at the top of one division. A single result can rescue a team from or plunge one into crisis at any one time.
This week, and after wins for the teams in second, third, fourth and fifth, it is Arsenal. Next week, when the Gunners face Huddersfield and City host Chelsea, the odds are that someone else will take up the mantle.
Arsenal have three fewer points than City did after 25 games of Guardiola’s first Premier League season, and that is after much less investment against much stronger direct competition. There is every chance he will not go on to achieve half of what his compatriot has, but he does at least deserve the a proper opportunity.
From 16 conclusions
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Finally some justice for Unai. He can’t do more with this shit team. Maybe just play Ozil more, but Mesut hasn’t been outstanding this season.
Unfortunately though, Arsenal do not have the luxury to do so. This type of ruthlessness is Chelsea’s cup of tea. Look how they just scrammed with Morata.
Sadly, we should be in a position financially to do so too, and honestly, if we had some good management we could recoup most of our losses anyway.