PL | Arsenal vs Tottenham | Sunday, 16:30 BST | Sky Sports

We know give Xhaka time and space and he can be effective. But now because of Xhaka, every team does look to press us, particularly Xhaka. Unfortunately for him, he's been sussed out in the PL. personally I would love to see him in Italy, he is made to play for a Milan, Juve or even Inter.

 

You don’t need the DM distributing balls if you have Ceballos/Özil and Willock/Matteo. He only needs to protect and give the ball fast to offensive midfielders. And I think Torreira is so much faster than Xhaka... and about height... Xhaka doesn’t even win aerial duels so... not a big loss there.

And with time Torreira can develop better vision and passes. He is still young for DM. Xhaka needs like 30 secs of free play to open the play, so and when pressed he does stupid things. He had time to develop, he didn’t

 

Given the super amateurish mistakes leading to the goals and going 0-2 at home against arch enemy, I take the 2-2 result.

It was at home so more support, but we have seen quite bad crumblings from Arsenal in recent years. Good comeback.

Criticism for Emery from me (considering Willock had some injury) was that he still used only 2 substitutes. Xhaka was totally exhausted after 75 minutes, so why not Chambers there to help with Sp**s counters?

 

Instead of putting Miki I would sub in Özil in free role and Auba as striker slightly coming from the left. Pepe open in the right.

Willock in for Xhaka... mateo and Willock interchanging the runs from behind while the other sits. When attacked you have both of them and Ceballos getting back.

 

Good point about Willock, he was withdrawn from international duty because of some sort of strain, so benefit of the doubt to Emery on that. I would have taken the risk with Ceballos though, based on his prior match at the Emirates (vs. Burnley).

 

Too bad it's not FIFA.

"Joe Willock
The youngster has withdrawn from the England U21 squad due to inflammation of the calf. He was included on the bench for the north London derby on Sunday, but it has been agreed between both the FA and Arsenal that it would be best for him to rest over the international break.

The injury is not thought to be serious and the midfielder will be looking to add to his three Premier League this season when Arsenal travel to Watford on September 15th.

Mesut Özil
He missed the game against Burnley after being ill in the week leading up to the match. The German had been back in full training with his teammates following security concerns that caused him to miss the season opener vs Newcastle, he made his first appearance in the match day squad in yesterday's North London Derby, although he is yet to play a minute of football this season."

https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/players/arsenal-injury-news-joe-willock-16747834

 

You cannot count the Liverpool game since he used in a completely different position for him. Ceballos is a CM, he was send only to try to recover in advanced positions and since we didn’t have the ball at all he was running and getting tired behind the ball.

 

So why you take Willock to the bench?

And Özil? I don’t see any problem playing him instead of Miki since he had full training last week.

 

I cannot think of a single game (post 2018) where Özil hasn’t been appalling as a sub. Please reply if you have an example.

Miki is still worse though

 

I prefer Özil vs Spuds than using Miki one day before leaving to Roma.

So why not sub him in. The team needed changes anyway, if Willock es not ok then put Nelson Or martinelli and Özil. God he is one of the best No 10 in the world and you are telling me not using him for the last 30 minutes is Ok?

Emery is just douchebag with Özil

 

Yes. On paper it makes sense not to sub in a player who is on his way out, especially in a derby game.

On the pitch however, Emery has plenty of reason not to play Özil off the bench, based on previous examples from last season.

I have no inside knowledge of the situation, but one reading is that the Emery/Özil relationship has completely broken down.

I refute your statement, post 2018, that Özil is one of the best number tens in the world but if you can provide some specific examples I may have forgotten then I will happily stand corrected.

Made no sense not to put on Nelson or Martinelli instead of Miki. Most perplexing decision from the manager.

 

Since Emery arrived you mean... what’s only prove who is the problem here. Emery trying to play 2 or 3 dm with a CM playing as 10 clearly doesn’t works in PL.

 

Nope, not since Emery arrived. Since Özil signed his new contract at the start of 2018 and also during the subsequent World Cup and then into the following season.

 

I've just realised that it's the complete distortion of the truth when it comes to Özil, that makes me not want to see him in an Arsenal shirt ever again. If people only told it how it was/is, it would be so much easier to stomach. But... but the lies. Got a very strong feeling he'll be gone in January anyway, so hopefully not long now.

 

One reason is if he got injured in warm-up. Another if the injury is so minor that he could have played some in emergency.

Personally I don't see players as close as the head coach, so cannot estimate which has performed better in training and all the other factors. No proper minutes played for Özil this season, so it would have been a risk too.

 

Now suddenly all defending Emery... bah this team is doomed to mediocrity. People defending him just make me think this team is where it deserves.

Just record this, Emery is not going to take Arsenal to anywhere, thank ManU and Chelsea they both are in similar spots. Other way this team would never have the chance of making top4. And even that... we won’t have any system with emery and if we get something it will be do it by PEA and Laca saving game from nowhere.

Zero hopes of reaching top4 with his mediocre set ups. This year will be Liverpool, City, Sp**s and probably Chelsea 4 when we lose against them and against ManU. Pray for them dropping points. It will be a race for the less mediocre team.

 

You’ve covered all the bases here, whether we finish in or out of the top four.

I think most fans just want success for the club with or without Emery but it’s wise to be prudent and give the new boss some time. We are not a hire and fire club. We have a bit of class, a bit of decorum. We are known as her majesty the queens favourite for a reason.

I’ve posted on here for years the manager that follows Wenger has a helluva task on his hands and in all probability won’t be “the one”.

What I do like about Emery is his refusal to nurse and mollycoddle those won’t put in a shift.

 

i feel the main issues were -
1. Someone needed to help out Kola (doozi initial position)
2. We have no DM. Xhaka is the closest. Doozi, Torreira cannot shield CB. Willock AMN and Chambers haven't been tried and proven in that role.
3. Auba, Pepe are both defensively weak on the wings. So you cant add Özil to the mix, unless u take out one of them, or have 4 defensively strong CM/DM + fullbacks behind. In that case u can play a front 4 and a back 6.

Looking at this, emery who anyway is cautious, cant play Özil. Mkhi was safer option on the wing.

 

I don't get how that team and tactics were 'defensive' in any shape or form. I must have watched a different game. No need to elaborate on starting PAL, apart from Laca dropping back occasionally the other two won't help out much defensively, which is what we want anyway. Douzi was literally all over the pitch, in a true box to box midfielder role. Torreira, like so many people are quick to remind us, was the furthest forward of all the midfielders, so an attacking midfielder role. Kola and AMN had a licence to bomb forward at any given opportunity.

So that leaves just Xhaka, Luiz and Sokratis as the only players who were concentrating solely on defensive duties.

The only questionable decisions was playing Torreira in that role, when Willock is more suited to that, but as we have heard he wasn't probably 100% fit, which may have played a role in the manager's decision. Xhaka shouldn't have started as well, though that decision isn't as clear or obvious as it is made out to be.

For the people advocating starting Özil, first of all, he is woefully short of match fitness. Secondly, to add more players who couldn't help out defensively would be suicide and thirdly, let's not make out like Özil is guaranteed to put in an adequate performance.

 

Well said.

It is defensive because he didn't play AMF Ceballos/Özil rather than one of the CMF's.

One of which was just **** starting in a tough EPL match, and other has not played competitive match yet this season.

Willock was said to be injured after the match.

Of course it's very defensive when you play 4 at the back, 2 strikers and one goal-scoring winger.