PL: Arsenal vs Everton | September 23rd | KO: 16:00 BST | Sky Sports

[Fallout]

i have a suspicion that our slow starts and strong finishes are fitness-related. other teams know we are vulnerable in the build up, so they press hard and eventually gas out. then we can finally start playing our football. xhaka in particular goes from looking like a dud to a world beater all within the same match.

 

[Big Poppa]

This is as bad a game I've seen Özil play for us. And that's coming from one of his biggest fans. Bad decision making, bottled that counter like he did against Man City at home. Ducked out of a few challenges as well. He really doesn't help his cause sometimes. Very disappointed with him.

I nearly threw my phone at the tv.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Özil is still struggling with confidence and playing out side position like in 2nd he should have take a shot instead of passing it

 

[celestis]

Really ? wow didn't notice .

 

[Sniper Mik]

i have a suspicion that our slow starts and strong finishes are fitness-related. other teams know we are vulnerable in the build up, so they press hard and eventually gas out. then we can finally start playing our football. xhaka in particular goes from looking like a dud to a world beater all within the same match.

Yeah that's a fair point but it's a very risky game to play. Go 1-0 down at home and you're in trouble. It drives me up the wall when we invite pressure by playing the ball back instead of forwards and take 4-5 seconds extra to make up their mind about the next pass. Mustafi and Xhaka in particular are guilty of this. Just gives the opposition that chance to press us hard.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

Emery says we didn't control the match in the first half but the second half we were better. He says every player should have done a little better and helped each other more. He praised Cech and says tgat we have to take each natch as it comes. On Torreira, he says his performance was good and he was pleased with his control after the yellow card.
His English is getting better and I like his direct answers.
He had a spat with Marco Silva on the touch line but shook his hand at the end and looked to be apologising. I like his style so far.

 

[A_G]

This post coming directly after the one above it is just perfect.

 

[GunnerBP]

For long stretches this match was awful, but you can still see the progress Emery is trying to make.

In the first half, I think a lot of our issues stemmed from Torreira, but not because he played poorly. When Douzi plays, he likes to dribble the ball into attacking positions, and Xhaka is the deepest midfielder. With Torreira, he likes to occupy the space in front of the defense, so it became harder for us to transition out of defense. We needed either Ramsey or Özil to occupy the space in the middle of the field, but Özil was out wide, and Ramsey was way too advanced. In the Europa League, Mkhi stayed in the center to receive the ball from Xhaka or Torreira.

In the second half, Ramsey and Özil played more centrally and that made all the difference.

Torreira will help us keep clean sheets, and his positioning will force Ramsey and Özil to get on the ball a lot and create chances.

Pretty soon we'll start putting together complete performances for 90 minutes, but until then it is good to keep on picking up wins.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

i have a suspicion that our slow starts and strong finishes are fitness-related. other teams know we are vulnerable in the build up, so they press hard and eventually gas out. then we can finally start playing our football. xhaka in particular goes from looking like a dud to a world beater all within the same match.

Could be the reason but still we could ukf find ourselves 2-0 down at HT

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Looks like Leno will have to improve his goal keeping ability or wait to cech to retire after this season maybe

 

[A_G]

You can't say 'balls' on TV? PC Britain gone mad

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

Really ? wow didn't notice .

Waiting for Jury and the Maniac to come back from death to tell us how they observed Özil not trying and the stats are lying.

 

[celestis]

You can't say 'balls' on TV? PC Britain gone mad

Pretty sure you can , bloke is trying to cover up his own attempt at Bawdy joke gone wrong .

 

[arsmile]

I like that we're not playing excellently and still winning.

it's the opposite of how it had been towards the end of last season...and we seem to be getting lucky with defensive errors instead of being punished for every one...feels like a change in attitude/magic.

getting lacca and PEA in goal scoring positions...will always get goals. That's kind of all we really need to do then

don't think ramsey's doing much...I think this system wants him OR Özil (or mhki) i'd have iwobi there on current form

 

[Fewtch]

Emery is going to drive me crazy with Ramsey at 10. Play him next to Torreira or don’t play him at all.
We can’t have 3/4 attackers out of position ffs, blatant mismanagement

 

[Batman]

I'm torn because on the one hand Ramsey not signing a contract and being pretty ineffectual as a 10 should disqualify him from playing there. Having said that, Ramsey always gives you a full match effort whereas Özil, in spite of the tackles today is far too fleeting in his commitment to making an impact. It just seems that Emery is trying too hard to shoehorn them both in. The only way I see it working is if Ramsey plays where Xhaka does and Özil operates as the 10 but both are being hurt individually and to the detriment of the team where they're playing now.

 

[Big Poppa]

99% of statistics tell 1% of the story.

 

[Sanchez11]

Win the next 4 games and il be happy.

 

[progman07]

For long stretches this match was awful, but you can still see the progress Emery is trying to make.

In the first half, I think a lot of our issues stemmed from Torreira, but not because he played poorly. When Douzi plays, he likes to dribble the ball into attacking positions, and Xhaka is the deepest midfielder. With Torreira, he likes to occupy the space in front of the defense, so it became harder for us to transition out of defense. We needed either Ramsey or Özil to occupy the space in the middle of the field, but Özil was out wide, and Ramsey was way too advanced. In the Europa League, Mkhi stayed in the center to receive the ball from Xhaka or Torreira.

In the second half, Ramsey and Özil played more centrally and that made all the difference.

Torreira will help us keep clean sheets, and his positioning will force Ramsey and Özil to get on the ball a lot and create chances.

Pretty soon we'll start putting together complete performances for 90 minutes, but until then it is good to keep on picking up wins.

Wouldn't it be Xhaka's (only) job to bring out the ball from defense to attack, though. Of course, Xhaka can only bring the ball out if he has time and space, but shouln't we then try Torreira - Gouendouzi then?