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Victories, Defeats, Signings, Emery and More – A lot has happened in 1 week at The Arsenal

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Good afternoon Arsenal fans.

My first blog in over a week following a nice break in Antigua. The cricket was awful but the weather was brilliant.

In my absence I see Gav has been writing a few blogs. He really needs to write more – and I do keep telling him that. His excuse is the shop and his kids keep him busy. He does spend a lot of time coming up with new ideas, like the fantastic Arsenal pop sockets he has just realised, but lack of time is just an excuse. He has a top view on football and very different to mine. We balance each other out.

Plenty has happened since I have been off.

Arsenal beat Cardiff with no defenders and then lost to Manchester City due to a couple of mistakes and a hand ball goal.

After the goal Liverpool scored against West Ham, there is certainly a feeling that the higher up the league you are, the more favourable decisions you get. Leicester City got many favourable decisions in the run in to their title. Do referees begin to buy into the story of Champions too much favouring the teams at the top? Perhaps.

We signed Denis Suarez on loan with an option to buy.

It was a bit of a transfer saga. Arsenal wanted a loan with option to buy Barcelona wanted a loan with an obligation to buy.

The Spanish sides worry was that with just 18 months left on his contract, if Arsenal did not sign the midfielder his value would dramatically drop. To get the deal through, Saurez signed a year extension and the loan with an option to buy happened.

I know little about him, but he is played under Unai Emery before and Raul Sanllehi has signed him twice for Barcelona. I back their view over someone on Twitter who builds his view on players mainly based on FIFA and YouTube videos.

Whilst I was off, Tottenham passed through 4,000 days without a trophy.

Mauricio Pochettino kept up his mantra of not needing to win trophies, saying that they only exist to boost a managers ego. How deluded is he?

Many Arsenal fans used to say “If Arsene Wenger went to Real Madrid and failed like he did at Arsenal (8 years with no trophy) he would be sacked within 2 years. Pochettino is in the same boat. Still trophyless after 10 years of managing.

He might be a media favourite, but ultimately he will judged on what he wins.

Finally I saw some people getting on Unai Emery’s back, with some even calling for his head. They really need to wind it in.

A lot of people have since jumped on the below (with the media companies “tarting” it up a bit).

Emery is a very good manager with a track record of success and winning trophies (unlike another manager in North London). I feel that some fans had too high expectations. They thought that by Arsene Wenger leaving, we would go from 5th placed in the league to title contenders.

The reality is that it has taken Jurgen Klopp 3 seasons (and 6 transfer windows) to turn Liverpool into a title contender. Prior to this season, they finished 8th, 4th & 4th under him.

Some seem to be criticising Emery for the attention. Others due to their love of Wenger. And some because he was not their preferred target when he joined.

It just feels like a lot of our fans like moaning and enjoy arguing on Twitter. They position their view to create an argument for attention.

The final thing that happened just as I flew out was the racism towards Alex Iwobi.

The Tweet by some Indian “actress” who is more famous for getting her rack out on Instagram (from what I what I have been told) was horrendous and certainly not a reflection on all Arsenal fans.

Sadly some countries are no as evolved as Britain. We live in a diverse, multi cultural society. Whilst racism still exists, it is no where near as big a problem as it was in the 1970s. Some countries still hugely discriminate against people of different backgrounds – whether that be race, sexuality or gender. It is worrying how many of these countries have legislation making this discrimination legal.

There are many countries where you may not hold public office if you are from a certain ethnic group, or where homosexuality is illegal or you are not allowed to follow certain religions.

With the rise of social media, the world has gotten smaller. What then happens is everyone from every country is held to the same level of accountability as they would be in England, even if the words or discrimination they used online is perfectly legal in their country.

It is right that all incidents of racial abuse is highlighted and acted upon accordingly, but it should also be remembered that the actions of someone in India, Russia or Finland (considered the “most racist” country in the EU – the UK is second least racist behind Malta). Views of these fans should more reflect badly on the country they live in, where racism is still a huge problem, rather than reflect badly on Arsenal who have a brilliant history of tackling racism and self policing.

I hope one day the rest of the world catches up with the United Kingdom when it comes to both legislation and individuals views.

Yes, racism still exists in the United Kingdom, and one incident is one too many, but citizens of this great nation can be proud that we are world leaders when it comes to anti-discrimination legislation.

The UK has never implemented any laws that discriminate or segregate on the grounds of race or ethnicity. Furthermore, it has never been an offence for persons of different ethnicities to marry one another. It has never been the case that a British citizen has been denied the vote on the basis of his or her race or ethnicity. Racial segregation and discrimination were never mandated or sanctioned by law in the United Kingdom.

Whilst some might say “these are things to celebrate, they should be the norm” sadly in the majority of countries in the world, its citizens to not share the same freedoms as in the United Kingdom.

So next time someone racially abuses Alex Iwobi, or anyone else, it should be highlighted, and remembered that their view is not a reflection on Arsenal fans but a reflection on themselves.

Huddersfield away this weekend.

Up the Arsenal.

Keenos

A weekend ruined before it has even begun

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The plan for the weekend was simple. Cricket.

And then Jason Holder hit 202 not out to give the West Indies a 628 run lead in the first test against England. 2 days still to play, it will be an uphill task.

The deluded optimist in me will be saying “the Windies were 415-6 when they declared. There are still 2 days to go. England have 50-odd on the board with 10 wickets in hand. The pitch has flattened out and the Windies bowling attacking is not great”.

But we all know how it will go. England will get to 80-odd. Lose the first wicket, then a couple more. Root and Butler will put on a battling 150, giving you that bit of hope again, before England lose the final 5 wickets for about 20 runs.

The match finished in 4 days, at least those out there will get an extra day on the beach instead of being in the cricket ground.

Hopefully the second test will be better.

Last nights defeat against Manchester United was certainly deja vu.

Over the last 10 years, under Wenger, Ferguson, Mourinho and more, Arsenal facing Manchester United has often followed the same script.

Arsenal dominate possession, have chances, miss chances, United score a couple on the break and win the game. And that is exactly what happened last night.

The Gunners were not poor yesterday. The statistics show we dominated the game. xG had us winning about 9-0. And that is why statistics are ultimately pointless. The only one that mattered was Manchester United scored 3 to Arsenal’s 1.

Manchester United scored 3 goals from their 4 shots on target. Not only do them seem capable over withstanding our pressure, they also have a habit of scoring goals against us without many chances.

A bit like the defeat against Chelsea earlier in the season, there are plenty of positives to take out of the game.

Despite losing our 2 central defenders, we battled well and matched a rejuvenated Manchester United.

Manchester United certainly have a feeling of the Roberto Di Matteo’s about them.

Di Matteo took over from André Villas-Boas at Chelsea. The senior players, Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard, John Terry, had downed tools. Made it clear they did not like the manager and got him sacked. Di Matteo came in and their form improved. It was nothing he did, it was just the players decided to start playing again.

They won the Champions League despite him.

The same is happening at Manchester United.

The likes of Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez clearly stopped playing under Jose Mourinho. They forced him out. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has not made them better players. They were already top draw players. They have just decided to start playing again.

Like Di Matteo, it would not surprise me if Solskjaer  led the team to a trophy, and even top 4. He will then get the job, the shine will rub off and he will be sacked in November. He will return to the manager that was sacked by Cardiff after 9 wins in 30 games.

You have to feel for Unai Emery at the moment. It just does not stop at the moment.

Some will say we have now lost 5 in 10, and he has to shoulder some of the blame for that, but we must stick with him.

It is not Emery’s fault that Sokratis and Laurent Koscielny suffered injuries last night. Koscielny’s was a freak accident. The pair have also had extended time off this season.

You then have Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding – both out for the season.

Shkodran Mustafi, Nacho Monreal and Saed Kolasinac have also spent time in the medical room this season, and Kostadinos Mavropanos has not been seen. Ainsley Maitland-Niles broke his leg in the first game of the season.

The only defender not to suffer an injury this season has been Carl Jenkinson.

To have so many defenders consistently out injured is just unlucky. We went into the season with 5 central defenders, and all 5 have spent time injured. You simply can not legislate for that.

So we have a race for 4th (I still think we will finish above Spurs) and the Europa League  left to look forward to this season.

Two chances to return to the Champions League, one chance to lift a trophy.

Emery will get things right, it will just take a couple more transfer windows.

Keenos

Match Report: Arsenal 1 – 3 Manchester United

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Arsenal (1) 1 Manchester United (2) 3
FA Cup Fourth Round
Emirates Stadium, Drayton Park, London N5 1BU
Friday, 25th January 2019. Kick-off time: 7.55pm
(4-2-3-1) Čech; Maitland-Niles, Sokratis, Koscielny, Kolašinac; Xhaka, Torreira; Ramsey, Iwobi; Aubameyang, Lacazette.
Substitutes: Elneny, Özil, Lichtsteiner, Monreal, Leno, Mustafi, Guendouzi
Scorers: Aubameyang, 
Yellow Cards: Koscielny, Kolašinac, Guendouzi
Referee: Craig Pawson
Attendance: 59,571
This is the kind of match that everyone needs to start the series of games which make up the fourth round of the oldest club competition in the world. Quite naturally, reputations and memories of previous meetings between these two clubs come to mind, but tonight the only thing on everyone’s mind is a place in the next round of the cup; apart from the return of the controversial Alexis Sánchez in a Manchester United shirt, of course.
Right from the start, you could feel the nervous tension in the stadium; as early as the seventh minute, Petr Čech was called into action when he spread himself at the feet of Paul Pogba to neutralise what, at best, could be described as a half chance, but at this level you really cannot take the gamble. Unfortunately, after ten minutes on the clock, Sokratis landed awkwardly and twisted his ankle. Although he tried to continue, it became obvious that it would be foolish to do so under the circumstances. And so our first substitution of the night came afater just seventeen minutes played with Shkodran Mustafi replacing him in the defence. A few minutes later, Alex Iwobi was desperately unlucky not to open the scoring with some clever passing in the opposition penalty area; ironically, if he had squared the ball to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang we may have had our noses in front. After half an hour on the clock the unthinkable happened. In a clever movement, Romelu Lukaku slotted the ball through to enfant terrible Alexis Sánchez who coolly rounded Petr Čech to open the scoring for the visitors; just as if that was not bad enough, little more than two minutes later, Romelu Lukaku found space on our left hand side and advancing towards our penalty area, looked across and a quick ball found an unmarked Jesse Lingard who wasted no time in increasing the Manchester United score. Three minutes before half-time, our clever play finally paid off with the soon-to-be departing Aaron Ramsey collecting a ball from the excellent Alex Iwobi, and jinking his way through the United defence, crossed the ball for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to get one back for us. Now we started to put some serious moves together, and Alexandre Lacazette was desperately unlucky not to equalise the scores in injury time.Just a minute into the second half we were desperately unlucky not to score with a clever Aaron Ramsey header that Sergio Romero somehow tipped over the bar. This incident spurred both sides to play exciting, end-to-end football with little margin for error. The pace was electric, with Aaron Ramsey showing everyone what a first-class player he really is. A tragic accident that saw Laurent Koscielny walk off the pitch with a nasty head injury which took the heat out of the proceedings, albeit briefly; this also added a further ten minutes on the clock whilst he was being attended to by the Arsenal staff on the pitch. He was replaced by Mattéo Guendouzi, who wasted little time in getting into the swing of things, as did Mesut Özil, who entered the fray in place of Alex Iwobi with 25 minutes left on the clock. With just five minutes left of normal time, and despite pressure on the United goal, Paul Pogba broke away and ran through the middle of Arsenal’s defence; his subsequent shot was parried by Petr Čech, but sadly Anthony Martial was on hand to merely tap the ball into the open Arsenal net. The match now got scrappy with an unsavoury incident between the two sets of players that saw Sead Kolašinac booked, and a poor mis-timed tackle during injury time by Mattéo Guendouzi also saw him enter the referee’s book. And despite one or two attempts on goal by both sides, that was that. 

Things we did well; move forward quickly, good first touch, good spirit and overall a fairly good desire to win. Things we did badly; defend. We also did not having enough awareness of the dangers that the quick Manchester United forwards posed to our defensive shape (if there was one). Mr. Emery is on the right track but needs some top class defenders fairly quickly otherwise we will just continue to be found wanting at the back. Time after time this season, our defence has been in absentia whilst the midfield and attack are doing their very best to win matches with class and style. This situation will be resolved in time, but what damage will be done to the team by then? We simply cannot carry on in this manner, score one, let in two. Or more to the point, win one, lose one. And now we have injuries on top of all this mayhem. Five days and counting until the end of the transfer window for loan deals. Remember everyone, keep the faith, get behind the team and the manager, as these early days are going to be crucial for our future success in all competitions. Stick with the winners. Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Steve

Too Dearly Loved To Be Forgotten: Arsenal v Racing Club de Paris 1930-1962 by Steve Ingless (Rangemore Publications, ISBN 978-1-5272-0135-4) is now available on Amazon.