Match Day Thread Brighton vs Arsenal - Matchday Thread

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Falmer Stadium
KO: 17:15
Wednesday 26th December


Head to Head:

All: 17
Won: 12
Drawn: 2
Lost: 3


Last 6 meetings:

Brighton 2-1 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-0 Arsenal
Brighton 2-3 Arsenal [FA Cup]
Brighton 2-3 Arsenal [FA Cup]
Brighton 1-2 Arsenal [FA Cup]
Arsenal 3-1 Brighton

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Team News:

Brighton defender Shane Duffy is available after a three-match ban and will replace the suspended Lewis Dunk.

Wingers Alireza Jahanbakhsh and Jose Izquierdo remain sidelined by injuries.

Arsenal midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been ruled out for up to six weeks with a broken foot, while Nacho Monreal and Shkodran Mustafi are doubts because of hamstring injuries.

Hector Bellerin, Danny Welbeck, Rob Holding, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Emile Smith Rowe remain out




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Another shambolic defensive performance,one hoof upfield and we concede,what the f--k are we doing in training.

 

**** team selection, **** tactics, **** substitutions **** performance, **** result.

There was no urgency, no speed and no intensity to our game.

I get we have an injury crisis right now, but for ****'s sake, at least field a side that is sensible.

Starting a 34 year old Lichsteiner, who provided no width or overlapping runs at all, against a Brighton side with tricky, pacy wingers is a joke. He was exposed constantly, yet Emery kept him on and took Koscielny, who looked comfortable for most of the game, off? Why revert to a back 4 when Kolasinac is ineffective there? His skills as a wingback are curbed in that formation and given that we lacked width as it was, it just made us even less effective. We didn't stretch them at all.

Why was Torreira playing so high up the field when we needed him to be the midfield general? What was Guendouzi supposed to be? Why take Lacazette off when we are searching for a goal with 30 minutes to go? Ridiculous decision. Why was Xhaka collecting the ball so deep and trying to dictate play from a deep position when we know that's not what he's good at?

Games like today really make me realise just how long we have to go before being a top side again. We are MILES behind Liverpool, Spurs and City.

We didn't control the game at all and Brighton should have won.

I don't want to sound too reactionary. But my patience with Emery is beginning to wear thin.

This result is no better than a loss.

 

not wumming mate...but your patience with him is wearing thin????
You are 2 points off 5th...went 23 games unbeaten between August and December. This is the first year since 3 points for a win was introduced that 3 teams entered Christmas Day with over 4 points won. In most years you'd be comfortable in the top four.

In 2017 (after 18 games) 4th place had 34 points
In 2016 (after 19 games) 4th place had 39 points
In 2015 (after 19 games) 4th place had 35 points

Think you are being a bit impatient tbh

 

The problem is before I thought there was a method to the madness, but now I'm not entirely sure what his strategy is.

Whilst the 22 game unbeaten run was impressive (our longest unbeaten run since November 2007), half of those games could have easily swung the other way and we barely looked convincing in a lot of those games.

Yesterday is literally a classic example. Starting the game with 3 CDMs is ridiculous enough, but fine. It's 1-1 at HT, we have 45 mins to turn it around. We need to win, yet he takes off our best creative player at half-time and replaces him with Iwobi, who was terrible. He then takes off Lacazette, whose off the ball work and sharp feet was critical to our attacking play even if he wasn't scoring. He keeps a 34 y/o Lichtsteiner on as an auxiliary winger when he wasn't doing his job well at all and kept getting exposed throughout the game. We didn't have a single shot on target in the second-half FFS. Against Brighton.

He was being commended for his game-changing substitutions in previous games, now he has to take criticism when he does things wrong. His substitutions yesterday, alongside his starting XI, were genuinely some of the worst I've seen.

Maybe he's trying to preserve their energies over the congested Christmas period. Maybe he's trying to manage a very thin squad right now because he knows that we can't afford anymore injuries.

But if he keeps pissing off our star performers and continues to make illogical substitutions, he will lose the support of the dressing room. Especially if results are poor.

There's still a long way to go but if things deteriorate from here in a similar vain, which I am worried they might, we may have to reconsider our options around March-April time.

Whether it happens in a manager's 1st season or a manager's 20th season, fact of the matter is: if you lose the support of the dressing room and your players don't have faith in you anymore, you need to go.

I don't think we're at that point yet, but I am worried that things will lead in that direction.

 

Totally agree.
Lichsteiner should have been the first to come off and Lacazette should have stayed on.
Strange decisions.

 

fair enough...you watch them week in week out.
His management of Ozil is interesting cos he ignored him for the NLD and effectively threw him under the bus with his comments about it being a tactical issue, then made him captain v Burnley, then subbed in at ht yesterday.
It's like he is forcing him out but given his wages that looks like a long shot!

 

When you look at our season objectives, we are still in a decent-ish position. We're not miles off the top 4 and we're in the latter stages of the Europa League - the two competitions that were always a priority for us.

However, he needs to fix up and fast.

He was getting a lot of praise for being 'ballsy' with his substitutions when we were winning, but when substitutions don't pay off, he naturally gets criticised for it. Yesterday though, he made a series of poor decisions that I believe cost us that game.

He's the complete opposite of Wenger. Wenger would always give players a second chance in the second half no matter how badly a player is performing. He'd always wait until the 70th minute to make changes. Emery tries to change things early and will rarely ever make a like-for-like substitution as he wants each player to offer a different dimension to the game. But he shouldn't always feel the need to make changes at HT if things aren't going to plan. Sometimes wait for 10-15 minutes in the second half before you mix it up. Ozil wasn't even playing badly, so taking him off that early was baffling.

His management of Lacazette and Ozil is questionable. They are 2 very popular players. If he ends up isolating them, I don't want it to have a knock-on effect on other players.

Even though Ozil, Lichsteiner, Monreal, Cech, Elneny and Ramsey will be off in the Summer, they are still here until that point. So he needs to utilise them effectively and wisely because football is a squad game. We don't want their mentality to be "we're leaving soon, so what's the point in bothering?." Otherwise it's just a waste of a squad place.

 

Ozil didn't track the Brighton goal scorer...I think that was why he was subbed.

 

Ozil will only be leaving if you sub his wages or if you give him a huge pay off cos no one else will give him £300,000 per week.
Not keeping Ramsey seems mad to me.

 

Then he's a facking idiot if that's the reason

Their goal came from a counter-attack resulting from our corner. Rather than blaming individual players, he should look at the systemic problems and the set-up leading to it. If he wants to blame someone for the goal though, Lichtsteiner's header back to the goalkeeper was appalling. It put Leno in no man's land.

Emery has a reputation for being meticulous. I thought that would result in our defence being tightened up. We have conceded 2 more goals at this point than we did last season. And we were deplorable last season, so that should tell you something.

 

To be honest, I'm fine with that. Even if we have to subsidise some of his wages, he can go in the Summer. He doesn't do enough for £350k p/w. But right now, we need him because he's our best creative player.

As for Ramsey, I'm not bothered about him leaving. On paper, his stats might look impressive, but his general play has been poor this season (could partly be because he knows he's leaving). But even aside from this season, his consistency has been lacking since the 2013/14 campaign. Where everything he touched turned to gold. He's not even come close to hitting those heights since.

I think it's best for all parties if he moves on. A lot of Arsenal fans aren't too fussed about him going.

We need to do better than the likes of Ramsey in midfield if we are to compete with the top sides.

 

I think that this could be to do with how Ozil applies himself.
Work hard? Rewarded. Stroll about? Out of the squad.

I don't think that Emery will accept passengers, regardless of how good a player they might be.
Look at the NLD league performance. That's how I think he wants his side to play and Ozil doesn't graft enough to play in that system.
The current squad probably can't do that every week and he has to work out who can adapt and who has to go.

 

Not taking the piss but he kind of reminds me of Ramos...great when it works but can alienate players.
He sold Defoe, Kaboul, Chimbonda to make a point and pissed off players like King and Huddlestone.

 

Jesus, relax! Things haven't got THAT bad yet!

 

Lower league Spanish midfielder? Check. Managed Sevilla? Check. Won back-to-back UEFA Cups? Check. Won the Miguel Munoz trophy? Check.
Does anyone know how he feels about ketchup and other condiments?

 

Ramos was a very good manager ... but was not suited to the premier league...so here's hoping