Category Archives: Arsenal

Unai Emery to ring in the changes

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Two games into the season, playing against 2018/19 champions Manchester City and away to Chelsea. Arsenal are on zero points. But there is no need to press a panic button

Arsenal have beaten Manchester City just once one 7 games – that FA Cup Semi-final, and not beaten Chelsea at Stamford Bridge since 2011 – when Robin van Persie scored a hat trick.

Last year we got 1 point from the two games in a torrid draw against Chelsea.

There are positives to be had. Whilst we did not get the result against Chelsea, it is the best I have seen us play at Stamford Bridge for 7 years.

Moving forward, things are hopefully about to get a lot easier for Arsenal.

We start today with a home game against West Ham, the start of a run of 8 games which you would be disappointed if Arsenal did not get at least 18 points out of. 5 wins and a draw.

West Ham will be the 2nd game of the season I have already missed.

The club messed up my away scheme which meant they did not buy a Chelsea ticket on my behalf, and I am with family over this Bank Holiday weekend so unable to go West Ham.

Luckily for me going down The Arsenal is not a job, but something I choose to do, so I do not need to rely on going to every game just to earn a modest income. I have the Monday – Friday grind for that.

That panic button is certainly not ready to be pressed, but it might be time for Emery to ring in a couple of changes.

The first is formation.

During the first half of pre-season, Emery seemed to favour 4312 with 2 up top.

With players returning from World Cup duty, and perhaps under pressure to try and put Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan into the same team, we started the season 4321, leaving Alexandre Lacazette on the bench.

It might be worthwhile for Emery to revisit the formation he favoured during pre-season.

Lacazette and Aubameyang. A dual threat.

Some will say that they can not play together, but both are smart players who enjoy each others company. Lacazette has a tendency to drift to the right during games, Aubameyang the left. So whilst the would both be down the middle, they would not be getting in eachothers way.

Thinking out loud, they could become the new Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole.

The problem with playing the two upfront is then we sacrifice any sort of width we had from playing Mkhitaryan, Ozil and Alex Iwobi (or Aaron Ramsey). We would ultimately play one number 10. A shoot out between Mkhitaryan and Ozil.

This would mean that we are once more relying on our full backs to provide the width.

Nacho Monreal is the only option on the left, but it is perhaps time for Stephan Lichsteiner to come in at right back.

This is not a slight on Hector Bellerin. He has not been as poor as some are making out.

On another day against Chelsea, if the finishing was better, he would’ve come away from the game with a hat trick of assists. Instead he was horribly exposed towards the end, with Chelsea’s winner coming from his flank.

The problem is under Emery’s system he does not have the cover of a winger. He is expected to defend and attack, and it is draining.

Mauricio Pochettino up the road uses his full backs in a similar way, but he rotated them almost every game.

If Emery is to ask his full backs to bet up and down the wing every game, he is going to have to expect them to run out of gas.

In Lichsteiner Arsenal have an experienced, dependable right back who needs to be rotated in and out with Bellerin to ensure that both men do not tire too quickly.

It actually would have been a smart move to sub Bellerin off for Lichsteiner on 70 minutes against Chelsea, such was how tired he looked.

The same scenario is on the left. Once Sead Kolasinac is back I would expect him to share the duties at full back with Monreal.

That leaves the middle of the park.

By playing a central 3, it will give the defence a lot of cover, and also ensure we have men who can drop out wide when the full backs have bombed forward.

You see Manchester City do this a lot when Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy have bombed on; Fernadinho sits between the centre backs ensuring defensive stability.

Lucas Torreira needs to start alongside Matteo Guendouzi.

I think as the weeks role on, we will see Granit Xhaka come in for Guendouzi, but the moment the Frenchman certainly deserves his place in the team on merit. 

So do we got for Aaron Ramsey or Granit Xhaka?

My preference is the Welshman.

As we are at home, Ramsey is more attacking than his Swiss team mate. With a 3 man forward line rather than a 4 man, we need one of the midfield 3 to be able to break forward and support. Ramsey is the best player in the squad for that.

Cech

Lichsteiner Mustafi Sokratis Nacho

Ramsey Torreira Guendouzi

Mkhitaryan

Lacazette Aubameyang

*since writing this blog Ozil has called in “sick”

Keenos

JW Diaries: 4 more games & meeting Smudger

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Following 5 days without any football, last Saturday saw me going to Hale End to watch our U15’s, followed by a mad dash home, drop the car off and head over to West London.

When we play Chelsea Away, it’s one of a few grounds where I drink mostly with good friends who are not Gooners. I arrived to my usual pub around 2:15 and spent nearly 3 hours there before the 15 minute walk to the stadium.

I thought that we played well in the middle and top end of the pitch; with better finishing, we would have got something from the match. Once again the defence was suspect but I felt it was a vast improvement on the previous Sunday.

Having got back to the pub, all of my Chelsea friends thought we played well and was unlucky-praise indeed!

Having left the pub around 10 pm, I should have been home just after 11. Wrong! I fell asleep on my train from West Brompton and was awoken about 11:45 at Clapham Junction which is completely the wrong direction and must have meant I went up and down the line! With the help of all night tubes and buses, I eventually got in just before 2am.

On Monday, I went to the Emirates to watch my first reserve match of the season where our U23s drew 1-1 against Brighton, both goals were in the last 5 minutes of the match, we went 1 up on 90 minutes with the visitors equalising deep into stoppage time, I thought it was a fair result.

Thursday saw a visit to Waterstones in Leadenhall Market, where I was able to spend 10 minutes exclusively speaking to ex Arsenal legend Alan Smith who was there signing his new book ‘Heads Up’.

Alan spoke to me about his thrill of signing for Arsenal, as well as his experiences of both Anfield ‘89 and Copenhagen ‘94, which incidentally are my top 2 matches that I have witnessed live!

‘Smudger’ also gave me his thoughts on the new set up; I will start to write these up and a series of blogs will be posted starting next week.

Today will see me watching the U23s for a second time in 4 days with a trip to the London Stadium, the home of West Ham, where last season we managed to win the U23 league there!

Who knows what tomorrow will bring, but the team need our support, make sure you sing & shout, loud & proud!

JW

Out with the old, in with the new

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March 2006, Arsenal v Juventus in the Champions League. ‘The King is Dead! Long Live the King!’ was the first line of the match report as an 18-year Cesc Fabregas dominated a 29-year old Patrick Vieira in the middle of the park.

This Champions League tussle had gone worse than Vieira could ever have anticipated. Humiliated by his old side, booed by his old fans, the Juventus player’s performance had gone some way to vindicating Arsene Wenger’s decision last summer to say a sad farewell.

You know you’ve been slow to react when Robert Pires, not exactly known for his tackling, pinches the ball from behind with a neat sliding challenge. That ignomy befell Vieira on the halfway line just before half-time and if that made him feel bad what happened next would only have made things much worse. The resulting move was both simple and devastating. Pires to Thierry Henry, Henry to Fabregas.

The 18 year-old slipped the ball confidently past the stranded Gianluigi Buffon before ecstatically wheeling away to salute the West Stand. Over on the other side of the pitch Vieira stood motionless.

The match not only justified Wenger’s decision to finally allow Vieira to leave after about 5 years of flirting with Real Madrid – the Frenchman was a shadow of his former self; but also vindicated his decision to replace him with a teenage Spaniard.

Not content with just a goal that night, Cesc also added an assist as he dominated the midfield.

Fabregas, by this stage, was totally bossing the match, linking up constantly with Henry in the attacking third. It was beautiful to watch: two world-class talents in riveting form.

The promise soon turned into something solid, something wonderfully inventive when Fabregas embarked on yet another burst into the box. Once Alexander Hleb had spotted the run, the result was almost a foregone conclusion. Drawing Buffon and two grasping defenders, the composed teenager slipped the ball sideways to the waiting Henry. Goal number two and a very useful cushion to take to Turin.

Now Jack Wilshere was certainly no Patrick Vieira. Not even close, and Matteo Guendouzi is some way off 18-year old Cesc Fabregas – but then has any teenage central midfielder ever done what he has done? but the comparison is clear and obvious.

In the summer, 26-year old Wilshere decided to call time on his Arsenal career as Arsenal failed to meet his terms. The Englishman had been beset with injuries for years, and like with Vieira, many felt it was time for him to leave.

Joining the club was 18-year old Guendouzi from Lorient in the French second division. Not really seen as a replacement for Wilshere, a few good performances in pre-season pushed him up the pecking order to the point where he started against both Manchester City and Chelsea – games Wilshere would have been in the starting XI for.

Guendouzi has quickly become a fans favourite and against West Ham will face the old Prince of Highbury, Wilshere.

Wilshere has already spoken about how he has a point to prove that Arsenal were wrong to get rid of him. Interesting use of language there that the Englishman sees him leaving on a free transfer as Arsenal’s decision, not his.

Young Guendouzi, meanwhile, will be motivated to show that Arsenal were correct in letting Wilshere leave, and looking at younger, fitter players.

Since he joined the club, Arsenal have released Josh Dasilva to Brentford.

Dasilva was rated highly by many of those that had seen him, but he is 6 months older than Guendouzi, who is clearly ahead of him in the pecking order.

Like with Fabregas, it is easy to forget that Guendouzi is barely an adult. He only turned 18-years old in April this year.

Against West Ham, and against Wilshere, he will have a chance to have his Fabregas moment. To show that he is better than the man he replaced.

Like Vieira defined the beginning of the Arsene Wenger era, Guendouzi  could be the man to kick start the Unai Emery years.

Keenos