The fact that we can neither defend nor attack is not very encouraging. Our Expected Goals average has decreased dramatically this season while our Expected Goals Against has gone up. Both are currently lower respectively higher than in any of the last five years, per Orbinho.
And before anyone raises the point: yes, I'm aware that statistical predictions and actual performances aren't the same thing. But I also know that we had this discussion during the fall when we won games by scoring with virtually every single shot on target. It wasn't sustainable then either, but plenty of people scoffed at the fact that we overperformed our xG the most of any team in any European top division. As usual with these things time caught up with us. You can overperform on a small scale but you can't cheat the law of averages. Our football has been shown up, and Emery seems to have no solutions. Instead he's hellbent on driving every creative player away from the club.
