Emery did his presser yesterday which of course is delicious for somebody who needs something to write about on a Friday morning commute, so I got one am hoping that he replicates this format for the rest of his Arsenal tenure, cos it dun’half ‘elp with my #content.
I like that he’s open to talking specifics on tactics too. Yesterday he was asked about whether we’re going to get two up top, with Auba and Laca as a partnership, but pretty much shot it down in flames which whilst not what I wanted to hear, at least we all saw a manager willing to show his workings.
He said he wants to control possession more in the middle of the park and he doesn’t think two up top gives us that stability. Personally I think in a game like tomorrow the controlling of a game will happen in our final third and so somebody like Auba and Laca up top could/should work. But given it’s still early days and given that he’s at least giving us insight into his thinking, we at least know what he wants.
He didn’t state specifically that Laca and Auba won’t play with each other either, just that they won’t play up top as a two, so it wouldn’t surprise me if both were named on the teamsheet from the start tomorrow. It will of course see Auba wide left of that happens and whilst I’m not 100% convinced it’s what we should be doing with him, it’s a situation that I’m sure we’d all accept, if the partnership between the two were to flourish.
One things needs to be for damn sure, which is that Aubameyang needs to take his chances, because he missed a fair few last Saturday and we can’t really afford for him to go through a drought. Not with our back line likely to haemorrhage goals all season.
Emery touched on that at his presser yesterday too and to be fair to him said something similar. Auba is a Rolls Royce footballer- if you read my stuff you’re probably bored of me using that line but people who saw him last season will know that he’s deadly. I’m not overly concerned. I listened to the Arseblog this week and James talk about the Emery era being a ‘small sample size’ of games to judge. Well with Aubameyang we have a larger sample size and last season showed us that he’ll bag goals this season. And if he’s fit for the whole of it then we’ll see plenty of goals. That’s for damn sure.
As for injury news, there’s nothing really to report, which is always handy. We have a full complement to pick from and that means none of us have any idea who is going to be picked. Which is still a novelty and still means I get excited with anticipation when we roll around to about an hour before kick off.
I say we don’t know who will be picked, but we clearly do know who is going to be picked in defence, as Monreal is the only fit left back and Emery is determined to keep going with Mustafi and Sokratis. A Sokratis fresh from those revelations that his sprint speed is one of the highest at the club, revealed after Auba posted the race scores on his Instagram account.
I don’t know how that’s happened though, because if you talk to anyone who know German or Greek football they tell you Sokratis is slow. So we must either conclude that every attacking line in the Premier League is faster than him, as well as our own team are slower to arrive than a politicians apology.
Sometimes you have to see with your eyes and when you see him lumbering back as Pedro is in acres of space like last weekend, it’s hard not to get irate.
All the tests in the world mean nothing if you get on the pitch and your brain isn’t switched on to danger and if Sokratis is hoping that Mustafi is going to help out, he’s backing the wrong horse, I’m afraid. Mustafi is the metaphorical equivalent of a three-legged nag with gout in the other legs and an inner ear infection that causes him to constantly lean left and run in circles. If the experienced Grecian is going to be a success at Arsenal he’s going to have to learn to sort sh*t out himself, because all Mustafi will be good for is shouting at him after the German is the one that clearly made a mistake.
Anyway, I digress, but the most important part of our team at the weekend feels like it’ll be our attacking line up and I suspect we’ll see a different Arsenal tomorrow. Hopefully a more prolific Arsenal.
Righto, that’s me for another one, so I’ll bid you adieu and hope you have a grand ol’ time.
Laters.
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