Guys, we are in a crisis. The biggest one I have seen at Arsenal since Graham left.

How do we get ourselves out of this mess?

We don't unless Wenger quits/retires. I don't remember feeling so hopeless about the club before.

It's okay guys. Reiss Nelson is going to get 5 or 6 starts this season at right back. The future is bright.

These are the kind of threads we take the piss out of RAWK and Glory Glory for.

Only Reiss Nelson can save us.

Reiss Nelson? We haven't even blooded Jeff (and his brother)

Don Pacifico wrote:

These are the kind of threads we take the piss out of RAWK and Glory Glory for.

Too many of these threads and too many transfer threads saying the same thing.

"The herd of elephants have nowhere obvious to go."

You would think it’s impossible for Arsenal to play as badly as yesterday for too long. Even if the coaching is appalling, the players themselves must be able to:

realise that tactics, positioning and willingness to work for the team are essentiallook back at the Liverpool game and see what was wrong.

The players can do nothing about bizarre team selections or instructions (well, nothing short of going on strike or jointly confronting the manager – and I guess the latter is a possibility, though who is going to take the lead on that?), but surely they can see during a game how the other team are playing and try to counter it? Surely if they watch the Liverpool game back (and they’d better!) they will see the same things that commentators and pundits have already pointed out?

I have zero interest in any statements from players about how much they’re hurt, how much they care or even what they’re going to do. All equally meaningless. This is sport, not debating club; the action takes place on the pitch, so that’s where the ‘talking’ needs to happen.

In summary:

All is not yet lost
Things will improve
There are plenty of worse teams than Arsenal in the Premier League
But it could be the first season under Wenger where Arsenal truly struggle for top 6
Arsenal definitely won’t win the league this season
Wenger is still going nowhere
The players’ attitudes need to change (not all of them, but many)

My previous blog post only a couple of days ago summarised predictions for the top 6; at the time of writing that, no Arsenal fan thought their club would finish outside the top 6. It’s indicative of how quickly opinions change that a re-run now would probably have almost the opposite result.

Of course there are also bigger questions about Kroenke, the Board, transfers, who is in control, how much can be spent, etc etc. Those affect the team at macro level, but you could give the same players as Arsenal had yesterday to another manager and the perfromance and result could (and should) have been very different. That’s why the buck for any debacle on the pitch always stops at Wenger.

I would hope it's impossible for us to play as badly as we did yesterday for too long.
I'm not too sure of it though.

https://angryofislington.com/2017/08/28/arsenal-on-the-ropes-where-to-now/amp/

I haven't been a supporter for many decades like some, but I still haven't felt so detached from the club as I do right now. Thinking about the line-up after the Liverpool game I found myself wondering if Wenger was mentally ill. I don't mean that as a joke, I was genuinely wondering.

Going on the outward signs, his reactions on the sideline and at post match interviews, I think he is showing signs of someone who is suffering the effects of stress - he does look as if he's struggling to cope.
He cuts a pretty isolated, withdrawn figure out there.
It's a massive leap from that to saying he's mentally ill though.
I don't understand his team selection yesterday but I would not think his decisions were caused by some kind of delusion on his behalf.
I would love to know what's really going on behind the scenes, if what we're seeing is the outward manifestation of some internal issues.

 

Internal issues cant be connected to that shambles of a team makeup on the pitch. Thats on the manager.

Completely disagree - of course it can be on the manager AND connected to internal issues.
It's not either or.
I'm just wondering if his team selection was influenced by his reactions to issues behind the scenes as opposed to going with the notion that his selection was the product of a mental illness which Quincy suggested.

I think the most effective thing fans can do is simply stop going.

I don't think they will though - there are going to be a lot of boos at the Emirates this season.

Irish gunner wrote:

Assuming fringe players + chambo and mustafi leave:

Cech: Old n busted
Ospina: Short and flappy

Kos: Old n busted
Mert: Old n busted
Holding: Too young
Chambers: Ignored (also too young)
Monreal: Good but approaching old n busted status

Bellerin: Has shit hair
Kola: looks decent

Ramsey: Tactically stupid
Xhaka: Plain stupid
Elneny: Ignored
Coquelin: Limited
Wilshere: Not good enough for Bournemouth (also busted)

Ozil: No fire
Sanchez: Heart's probably not in it
Theo: lol
Welbeck: lol
Giroud: Goat cheese
Lacazette: too early to tell, looks decentish though

Truly fearsome squad. A+ squad building, definitely worth £9m p/a

Nice post by Irish that sums it up for me. We're in fairly deep shit, even if we hire a top new manager today it'll take us years, and hundreds of millions of pounds to reconstruct the squad. After two more years the situation will probably be worse.

We'll still be one of the richer clubs in England in 2019, but we've really kneecapped ourselves by allowing Wenger a new contract.

Not that I ever believe in these backroom stories but the mirror reckon there's a lot of apathy and disillusionment behind the scenes given the way things have been dealt with this summer. Mind you, I guess you wouldn't need a source to know this so much as just making an educated guess. We're screwed with Wenger in charge regardless but we need to do some serious damage control over the next week.

GooneriC wrote:

Internal issues cant be connected to that shambles of a team makeup on the pitch. Thats on the manager.

They can be absolutely connected.

If we can see how stupid Bellerin at LB with Sead on the bench is, imagine the players?

Rambo was having a right go at the bench on the pitch, imagine what's happening off it?