(The not-so-temporary quite-official) Gooner Thread (Part 3)

The frustrating thing about not being able to work is being able to watch AFC matches live.

Mate, Man Utd being bad is the only thing keeping me going :) Really dour stuff from both our teams.

I have Friday off to watch the Europa League game. I can see that watching the Supercars on Friday afternoon will be more enjoyable.

Well you might be right valeo. Ozil left out of the europa league squad today. The clip of training doing the rounds doesnt show a lot but ozils "you make me laugh" post seems a direct dig. Only one of Emery and Ozil will last beyond this season, or perhaps january. This is not tenable.

Well that first half was absolute crap and not helped by the comments from that cod Tim Sherwood. He can fudge off.

I'm glad I watched on silent then! Hahahaha

When we were 2-1 down there, I thought well even if we come back and win there's not much good to come from this, conceding twice at home to a rubbish side like that. Pathetic. 

But then Pepe goes and starts to repay some of that fee, that surely has to be good for him and his confidence. Great free kicks. A good silver lining in the end.

Martinelli continues to score for fun. Tierney with an assist. He's a very good crosser. 

So concerned with goings on though. Things do not feel good at the moment. 

Palace this weekend is crunch time. We've had some shockers against them, last season's game was terrible, Zaha always turns it on against us, nothing but a good win will do, otherwise this quagmire will deepen. 

Two brilliant free kicks from Pepe saved us there. Otherwise that genuinely felt like a chore to watch.

Strange game, that - we won with a last minute free kick but I feel like we lost.

Brilliant free kicks by Pepe the only silver lining to this game; good on him. Hope he takes that momentum into the PL.

Think there's no question Ozil will outlast Emery at this stage.

Emery just doesn't have the tools to take this team where we want them to go. Time to admit it and move on.

You might be right but there's certainly a question. 

Depends on how wedded to Emery Sanellhi and co are. If they stick by him, bye bye Ozil. 

If our EPL performances don't pick up then Emery will be gone, Ozil or no Ozil. 

I don't think they're wedded at all, honestly. I got the feeling Emery was always a 2 year stop gap manager, even if things went a little better.

Allegri's still available.. (though not sure he's the right choice either). Even Rodgers looks a lot more agreeable these days; wonder how tough it would be to pry him from Leicester.

Jared Gillet is the VAR in this game... 

what the fudge why wasn't that a goal!?!?! fudge VAR!!!

Wow that looked like a ridiculous var decision

Fudgeing Gillet.

Fudge.

Fantastic performance and behaviour from the club captain once again. Please fudge off and take Luiz with you.

Our fanbase is an embarrassment.

Fudge VAR too. Surely that's a penalty on Chambers if anything? Initially I thought that's what the ref was going back to give. Why does the referee not go and look at the screen on that instance? There must be some purpose in them being there.

I can understand both sides here - Xhaka actually had an OK game, and did not deserve jeers from the crowd. In saying that, why the fudge is he walking off when we're 2-2 with Palace at home? He should be sprinting off the pitch; at least a light fudgeing jog.

A classic Arsenal game - poor defensive performance and ref fudge ups.

It was the most awful thing I've seen in a live sporting event. Awful stuff from our fans.

Xhaka's reactions didn't help but as Arseblog eloquently put it we got Xhaka the man's response not Xhaka the captains response.

Did you know Xhaka became a dad a few weeks ago? Blokes probably at his most emotionally vulnerable right now and this happens.

I'd held a lot of hope Emery could turn this around, but even with Laca & Tierney starting our style hasn't improved. We're playing in a horseshoe, go down the wing and play a few passes eventually trying to get a cross in that isn't that useful. If the cross doesn't come in then recycle through the CB's and go down the opposite wings. Repeat.

Very rarely do we drive through the middle. Yesterday each counter attack we fudgeed up through average/shark passing. Luis was actively trying to slow down the play when it came to him, doing that hand gesture to team mates. Surely that's on Emery, that's his style being executed.

The question is can he change the style because this isn't working.

Disappointing result being on my birthday yesterday, however my other half spent way too much money in spoiling me:

Put a ring on that mate, thats true love!

After much thought I am officially on the "emery out" wagon.

The squad is a mess right now, and I can't see a way out that will end happily. The last couple of weeks have seen things escalate to what seems an untenable position. 

A big factor for me is that we have some crucial players at the point where we need to be renewing their contracts (eg Laca/Auba), and in our current environment I don't see much of a compelling case for them to re-sign.

Something needs to change, and the buck stops with Emery. 

The Ozil situation and the Xhaka situation are shocking, Emery is clearly culpable in both (even if the actions of the fans, and Xhaka, were certainly not acceptable). Some of the selections and non-selections are really befuddling - I could accept this initially because you expect it to lead to something, but it hasn't. And there is clearly a dressing room situation given some of the social media activity going on. The squad is not united. 

The bottom line is that on paper, there is a really good team in that dressing room, and Emery's just not making it happen. 

I would never go down the "Emery's a fraud" road, because I don't believe that for a second, his record shows that he has been a successful Manager, with limited resources at times. He clearly has talent, but it's just not working with us,  and I think it's time to get rid. 

makes the most sense, probably cheaper to get rid of a manager than move players on that he is not getting the best from.

It's funny because Emery's problems have been pretty consistent from, say, his time at Sevilla until now. He had problems winning away from home with them, for example, and he had problems managing players at PSG.

The problem we have now is that any manager change would be one made with an air of panic - and I don't think there are that many great managers just twiddling their thumbs waiting for us to call.

I saw Allegri murmurs last night. He's currently unemployed. That's someone I'd take in a heartbeat. 

If it were a sudden thing then I wouldn't be averse to giving Ljungberg the reins until the end of the season. Currently I can't see Emery getting us into this top 4, or winning a trophy, so it seems low risk on who we appoint to the end of the season.

Just someone who can get the dressing room in order, and sort out the Ozil situation basically. 

I look at Lampard and think there's no way he's some kind of innovative tactical genius after 1 and a bit years of management, yet he seems to be man-managing that squad to be more than the sum of its parts right now. 

We need someone to bring in the nuts and bolts, the basics, and get the team together and and playing the same tune. 

If we were to lose our next 3 games, which is extremely possible (Liverpool, Wolves, Leicester), then that actually could be it for Emery. Would be hard to come back from that. 

Given our new structure I expect we'd be more likely to see an Arteta/Vieira than an Allegri/Mourinho type mgr. 

I'm unconvinced whether that's the right move (in fact I probably lean more towards the opposite), but I see it as a more likely short term one for KSE to make.

That said, I agree that the current situations (Ozil, Xhaka, Emery, defending, fan engagement, our on & off pitch leadership vacuum) cannot be allowed to continue.

I'd be happy with that too. 

Mourinho, fudge my days, if that happened I don't know what I would do. Abhorrent. 

The young former player seems to be a gamble that can work out. ManU not going so well but Lampard's looking good, Guardiola and plenty of others started that way too.

Anyone who suggests Mourinho should stop supporting the club asap

Ljungberg or Arteta seem the most likely options; Thierry Henry didn't exactly work out in his first job..

Valeo he won EL with Sevilla 3 times, and won the league + 2 x league cups and 2 x FA cup equivalents with PSG. Sure they didn't dominate the league but probably performed about the best you'd expect Sevilla to do with their budget & history. Also who wouldn't have issues managing Neymar? He's such a cod.

This for me is the issue. Emery seems to have a vision for football and how it should be played and the current crop of players either don't fit the mould or don't get it. Instead of finding a way to make them play to their strengths and become a sum of the parts he's persisting with a model/style that doesn't seem to execute well.

His only way of making progress is adjusting the approach and maximising the attacking threat that players like Ozil, Auba, Laca, Pepe all bring.

Can you imagine how a side given scope to play differently that had those 4 given freedom to fudge opposition defences up could go? Ozil drifitng in from out wide, Laca linking the play, Pepe & Auba getting in behind. You'd just need to back them up with 4 solid defenders and a couple of midfielders who can protect the back 4.

Martinelli... dang... always seems to be in the right place for goals

4-2, go to a stand-up meeting at work for 5 minutes, come back, 4-4.

You gotta laugh. 

Strong Reading 7-5 vibes 

Isn't today like the anniversary of that game or something as well???

5-4 now, Willock worldie

If you don't laugh, you cry. 

At 88 minutes, leading 5-4 I said to a workmate, "Now watch and see how we stuff this up" It's just typical Arsenal and at the same time, typical Liverpool. As soon as it went to penalties, I knew we were stuffed. Liverpool don't lose shoot-outs. 

Death, taxes and Arsenal fudgeing it up

Takes Ozil off - and we have no creativity. Takes Torreira off - and we have no effective screening of our piss poor defence... fudge sakes.

Is it just me, or is Ceballos kinda sharke? Great first game, ala Mkhi, but has been crap since.

Yea I'm not sold on Ceballos. He's had a couple of good games, he's got some fight in him, but not much else that I can see. Early evidence wouldn't justify signing him permanently. Happier with Willock for that role.

Mustafi had quietly been working himself back, and then a cupla shockers this morn. Obviously the own goal but also looked like he was mindlessly dawdling when Origi was free in the box for the equaliser. Not sure who else he thought he was picking up, and if he was supposed to be zonal then he wasn't in a good spot for that either.