Ok, without going into much details, here’s what happened in Europa Cup. We were trailing 2-1 against Villareal and needed a 1-0 win. All of our players were available (except Xhaka who got injured in warmup but does it matter?), we were playing on our home ground in a semi-final in Europa League and needed a 1-0 win against a not-so-great Villarreal side managed by ex-Arsenal coach Unai Emery, and we didn’t manage to win!
We are sitting 9th in Premier League with 17 win, 13 losses and top 4 is impossible. Not only we could have won Europa League, we would have been playing Champions League if we won today and beat Manchester United in the finals. Two matches to give everything for, and we lost!
Now, you might say it is just one of the bad day and we have won the next 3 Premier League matches but it’s not. The football was poor, there was no urgency and Villarreal has more shots on target that us.
The season is over. With no Europe Football in 25 years! Let that sink in. I’m rooting for a change now.
I have been rooting for Arteta but he does things that don’t make sense at all sometimes. He had a season and a half to decide his playing XI and we still have to guess who starts in a Europa semis. Bellerin has been sidelined from a month, Cedric for whatever chances he has got is better than him and he has been playing Chambers in the right back. We still don’t know our best CB partnership and you really need to wonder what’s happening when team’s performance drops if David Luiz is not in the side.
Just when we discovered ESR playing beautiful as #10, he decides to bring in Odegaard and push ESR to the sides. Did he forget he got Pepe, Auba, Willain, Martinelli to cover that position and Ode was meant as rotation to keep ESR healthy? I don’t know.
Talking about Willian, he has failed to deliver anything this season for Arsenal. How did he still manage to be in playing XI? Just because you bought him and paying big wages, you don’t need to play him if it’s not helping! If you are sitting in 9th position, either you are wrong in selecting the players or your tactics are wrong. I feel it’s both but that’s for another day. At least, there is a news circulating that Willian wants out!
After Wenger left and Emery was relieved of his duty, we all expected for a rebuild. Saka had to wait for ages to be a part of playing XI. Martinelli still don’t start a semifinal after being man of the match in the last match. Everyone knows there’s no place for both ESR and Ode at the same time on the pitch. Auba has been constantly pushed to left wing, basically restricting his poaching ability for goals. Guendouzi was one of the hottest prospect under Emery who was sacked. Junior partner to Saliba is thriving in Leicester City, but Arteta decides for whole 6 months to keep him out of the squad and then sends him on loan.
The football is poor. Team management doesn’t make sense (at least to me) and we are not in a place where it should be. We have a summer window coming, and with all fans pressure we might see Kroenka putting some change in squad build. If Arteta gets the squad building right and don’t bring another Willian or extend another Luiz, I will be okay for him to continue. I don’t trust him though!
A little late, took some time to digest the defeat from Emery and Europa football scene. See you in the comments.
