Arsenal v Norwich Preview: We Love You Freddie

I can’t say I was unhappy yesterday morning when I heard the news Arsenal had decided it was time to part ways with Unai Emery. We are on our worst run of results since 1992 as we’re without a win in seven games in all competitions. I’ve nothing against Emery in person, but the time had come where it appeared there was no going back.

Since our late collapse in the Premier League and Europa League final defeat last season we have been a shambles. We had no particular style of play and 18 months into his tenure all the problems in the final years of Arsene Wenger’s reign seemed to be unaddressed and had probably even got worse under Emery. I don’t think the club had any other choice than letting him go, but they now have to get his successor right.

We need a manager who can play the style of football us fans want to see at the same time as fixing the very real problems we have. It’s not going to be an task and the club cannot rush into selecting a replacement. In the meantime they have put Freddie Ljungberg in temporary charge as their search continues.

He takes charge as we have just started the busiest time of the season with the games coming thick and fast. There is no doubt he will have the fans behind him and we can look forward to renditions of “We Love You Freddie” ringing out from the stands. He hasn’t got an easy job though when you look at how we have being playing, but hopefully he can change things as quickly as possible.

Emery penned a message to the fans yesterday and it was a very good message to be fair to him. I have nothing against the man in person and I genuinely wanted him to do well at Arsenal, but it just didn’t work out. I wasn’t impressed with the abuse he got from some and that includes the slagging of his accent, pronunciation and use of English in particular. The division in the fan base of recent years and toxic atmosphere at the Emirates at times is something we could do without and hopefully it’s something that will improve as we move forward.

First up for Freddie it’s a trip to Norwich  tomorrow afternoon and it’s a game we really need to win. We’re already eight points off the top four and we only have the same gap below us to the bottom three. While we might still be a point above both Spurs and United we have a lot of ground to make up on both Leicester and Chelsea if we want to take the easy route to the Champions League for next season. Champions League football is something we took for granted under Wenger, but it’s been three seasons since we played against Europe’s elite clubs. 

Norwich got their first win in a long time away to Everton last week, but it wasn’t enough to move them out of the bottom three. They concede an awful lot of goals and they have conceded 10 goals in their last three home games which have all ended in defeat. They have shown they can play some pretty good football, but it’s a game we should win.

Freddie has to pick a team that can go to Norwich and win and he certainly has the players to do so. With three league games in eight days we have an opportunity to make up some ground if he can bring some organisation and the inevitable bounce that usually comes with a new manager. On the face of it trips to Norwich and West Ham with a home game against Brighton sandwiched in between them is exactly the start he could wish for in terms of fixtures.

If it’s true the players had lost faith in the manager we should see more from them in those three games and it’s something we need. As bad as Emery was he was let down by dreadful individual errors from far too many of his players far too often. We have to find a way to coach our players to make good decisions and I’m not sure how you do that. It can’t be a coincidence that these simple errors keep happening year after year no matter who is in charge.

I hope Freddie can show the ambition that Emery seemed so afraid to show time after time. We have some very good attacking players and the best way for us to turn things around is to play to our strengths. We have surrendered possession and been on the wrong end of far too many goal attempts to our opponents for far too long and he has to do all he can to get us to control games and take them to our opponents.

Surely Nicolas Pepe has to come back into the team as his omission at the expense of Mesut Ozil in the last few games has been ridiculous. What’s the point in playing Ozil if you don’t play the players most likely to benefit from his ability to open up opposition defences. I would love to see Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang through the centre of the attack with Pepe on one side of him and Gabriel Martinelli on the other. I know that leaves no room in the starting 11 for Alexandre Lacazette who scored both of our goals in the draw against Southampton last week, but I think it would be exactly the dynamic attack we want with Ozil supplying the ammunition.

I’d love to see Lucas Torreira deployed in his best position and the one his agent has made it pretty obvious he wants to play in. I’m still not 100% sold on Matteo Guendouzi as a defensive midfielder alongside him, but he has a lot to learn and will improve even more. He has to get his concentration levels right though, but his lapses could be a byproduct of the amount of game time he has been given at such an early stage in his career.

I would love to sit down and watch a masterclass in attacking football from Arsenal tomorrow and I do think we will see an awful lot more than we have done recently. I don’t think Freddie has anything to lose and I don’t see him sending the team out with the fear that was so obvious in recent games. I’ll be very surprised if the change doesn’t have a positive effect on every single player and I expect Norwich to suffer the consequences (said he hopefully).

That’s it for today.

See you tomorrow.