At the beginning of the season I wrote a piece about the Emery revolution. At this current rate it seems to have hit a brick wall. Confidence amongst the Gunners and Gooners was brimming. The Emirates was resounding with noise. The Wenger-out cloud had lifted, and Özil flicked and tici tacad Leicester out of sight and Aubameyang thumped the Spurs. Parity was restored, London was red, and they went 22 matches unbeaten.
In a month Özil is frozen out of the squad, Southampton beat them, London is white again, they stalled against Brighton and are now being undone by the unbeaten Liverpool.
Where is the tactical nuance that we were promised? The scintillating attack we were always sure of no matter how much we ended up losing by? Gone.
Against Liverpool we witnessed a side that had no teeth. As the ghost of December came again, wiped the floor with us and Arsenal were turned inside out. And went on to make the feeblest attempt against Liverpool in years.
As the Kop chimed in with “London Bridge is falling down ooooh Arsenal.” I almost yearned for Wenger. But mostly I prayed for a new centre back and screamed throughout the match for Özil. He should have brought Özil.
After almost breaking my mother’s television, I realised something that we have lacked since the unbeaten run ended: Confidence.
When you are winning the pressure is off a weak defence. Creative impetus is ever flowing, the back of the net bulges, and you hold the record for the most second half goals scored.
What came out of this game is we are a long way away from the likes of Liverpool and Emery must go back to the drawing board.
To excel in the Premier League your most creative player cannot be frozen out as the Paul Pogba and Jose Mourinho saga showed. Contracts cannot be withdrawn from the likes of Ramsey and a defence will win you a title.
As next half of the season begins, we will see more changes that Emery will implement and hopefully this 5-1 thrashing will be a stall on the road to a top four finish.
