PL: Cardiff vs Arsenal | September 2nd | KO: 1:30 BST | Sky Sports

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

Lacazette is gorgeous.

 

[Giroud12]

That's glass half full though, glass half empty would say we could very conceivably have lost to West Ham and Cardiff. Both those teams are struggling and we made both of them look good and dangerous. It's hugely worrying.

Not now mate! Lets enjoy this for a bit

 

[KrissKringle]

Auba can't play without Laca here. He could if we'd have some actual wingers, but in the current situation it doesn't work.

Xhaka can only look decent if Torreira is doing the dirty work for him.

I want to see Leno against Newcastle just to make an opinion about what we're missing or gaining by dropping the Chelski undercover agent.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Only caught the last 20 or so, but we looked well on top. I guess we were decidedly worse prior? Torreira needs to start is the thing.

We were in total control the whole game specially at 2nd half. Mistakes from our players and referee s**t decision allow Cardiff to score twice

 

[Bergkamp1988]

What I'd love not to ever see again:

- Özil on the flank (and on a horse tranquilizer)
- Xhaka
- Mustafi
- Bellerin

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Emery do it he ready

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

West Ham & Cardiff are the worst team in the league or somewhere around that and it is hard to say if these games filled our player with confidence.

We needed and should win the next 8 games after City and Chelsea. Can we do it?

I think the players have worked very hard since coming back in the summer but maybe the international break comes at good time, another scene can do them good! Now its up to Emery to work very hard over the break and come up with solutions!

Ideally I would drop Xhaka and Cech, but it is worrying the players behind are not getting ahead of them.

 

[Tom349]

I like cech he improved this season but if we want to play from back leno has to start. Torreira since he came on we looked more in control. Offensively we look good no problems there 9 goals in 4 games

Our two strikers have a combined two goals for the season. With the exception of the second half of today we haven't created any decent chances of play through the middle of the opposition and have had to rely on our fullbacks to push forward and get in behind the opposition. We have massive problems with our offense at the moment.

 

[krengon]

Brilliant 2nd half , yeah we conceded horrible goals but we were a good watch in the 2nd half . Some brilliant passages of play with Özil dropping deep . Don't think I have seen two WC finishes in one game in a awhile . that's a deadly duo .

As soon as we were able to get Özil involved and he started to pull the strings we were a different team offensively, some lovely combination play too..

 

[Rex Stone]

Only caught the last 20 or so, but we looked well on top. I guess we were decidedly worse prior? Torreira needs to start is the thing.

Nah we were in control for most of the game. It’s frustrating when you give a goal away as badly as we did for the first.

 

[Stannis]

Only caught the last 20 or so, but we looked well on top. I guess we were decidedly worse prior? Torreira needs to start is the thing.

yes torreira needs to start as does Leno

Cech is clearly is friends with a heart surgeon and is trying to find him new patients. The way Emery wants us to play we need a mobile, ball playing goalkeeper, something cech isnt.

Team performance was shiite, we won this on individual class. Özil and Auba woke up for around 30 min otherwise were at the beach. Lacca was outstanding through

Xhaka was awful defensively, as was Nacho

 

[tap-in]

I think Emery is managing Torreira very well, he's still relatively young but he'll be starting soon. I hope when he does start its in place of Xhaka who made errors again today, one very costly. Great game from Laca!

 

[Toby]

Think midfield is where most of our problems lie. Bellerin in pretty much in our right hand side all alone.

Either play someone who can help him in the right wing or fix our midfield to cover for our fullbacks to be able to have width.

I can see that, sure. The right wing being mostly empty, too many guys in the centre, Auba being a bit lost on the left, etc etc. I know some players have natural tendencies, e.g. Özil will drift into the centre rather than stay out wide. Ramsey is drawn to the box, etc. etc.

But the midfield being unbalanced is not it. Can't be. Doesn't account for the overall disjointedness. Other managers have worked with similar factors, like no outright wingers, forwards on the wings, etc. and made it work - maybe not perfectly but better than such dodgy performances like this today. This also is not outright blaming Emery - the guy has coached Sevilla and PSG, won consecutive EL titles and is an astute manager.

Bellerin is often alone, but his positioning is awful, too. He tucks in too tight when the players in the box are actually already cared for and allows the opposition to put in crosses without any pressure. Doesn't attack his man, doesn't show his man in any direction, doesn't block crosses. Looses players far too often and just doesn't have good perception of what is happening around him. But there's far deeper problems than Bellerin being a bad rightback.

In preseason things still looked a bit better, like there actually was a bit of development, but today and last week it looked shambolic, and it's not just the midfield, individual players - most of them have shown their skill and ability to work in given systems - or now seemingly the manager as the club has now changed that, too.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

We were in total control the whole game specially at 2nd half. Mistakes from our players and referee s**t decision allow Cardiff to score twice

They are all so ****ing awful. Not a single ref in this league I consider as actually good.

 

[Sniper Mik]

Helmet dropped an absolute 0/10 today. Blimey

Emery man I like you but this has got to stop. Either you stop playing out from the back with Cech or give Leno a shot. It looks embarrassing. Could have done 1-0 down within minutes.

 

[Football Manager]

Next game we need Torreira to start and Xhaka on the bench.

I’m not against benching Xhaka but Torreira is not his replacement. Guendouzi is the one should be competiting with Xhaka.

So if Xhaka is benched, we need a DM to do the defensive work (Torreira)(we need to get a backup in January because we have no other proper DM)

We need a CM who can make good long pass and dictate tempo to replace xhaka (Guendouzi).

And an AM who can play beautiful through pass and dribble through players with good close control (Özil)(Again we need to get a backup in January, since we’ve lost Cazorla we don’t have a silky AM who can play the AM role other than Özil).

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

They are all so ****ing awful. Not a single ref in this league I consider as actually good.

The goal came from foul that Arter has dived. Var desperately needed

 

[Hope]

Good work.

Guendozi and Torreria should start.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

*Adjusts tin hat*

Error aside I thought Xhaka had a good game. He made some decent tackles and recycled the ball well. He gave it to Özil when he was in promising positions.

He also looks a level up when Torreira comes on. There’s some there with those pair. I love Guendouzi, he’s an outstanding talent but the games are catching up to him now.

Torreira-Xhaka-Ramsey in a three. Please.

 

[dashsnow17]

If it ain't Torreira, it ain't worth sh*t. That needs to be written on the walls of Emery's office.