It all went wrong again for the Gunners at Bramall Lane on Monday. Having played 5 games away this season they have only won 1, drew 2 and lost 2. Needless to say, Arsenal's away form this season is once again proving to be their achilles heel. It was as if they did not know what Sheffield's game plan was. We all knew (at least the fans did), that they were gonna come at us with intensity and if we were not going to match their intensity we were always going to be on the back foot.
In the first half we sat back and invited pressure onto ourselves. Pepe should have scored that sitter. In my opinion he should have cushioned it into the net with his right foot instead of trying with his left. As for the goal, we had 3 players moving towards the ball and when it fell none of our players reacted quick enough. Defensive frailties once again cost the Gunners.
The start of the second half was pretty much the same, Arsenal simply did not create enough. It was boring sideways and backwards football once again. Most definitely seemed like a familiar style of football. Emery got the team selection all wrong. The midfield had 3 very similar style of players. Willock and Guendozi are more of box to box midfielders while Xhaka is seen as more of a 6 by Emery. There was no link between the midfield and the front 3. No one was able to supply the goods. Ceballos was on the bench and while Mesut Ozil was nowhere to be seen. Tierney was ready but was left on the bench and so was Torreira. Emery has questions to answer for. If he leaves out key players and gets the job done, fair enough but when it all goes wrong like this, explanations are needed. The lack of creativity was apparent. Ozil should at least be on the bench as someone you can bring on when you need that little bit of magic.
We ended the game with 3 strikers on the field, its all good having that many of them on but you simply have no one to feed them. Now I`m not saying a player should be starting just based off of his reputation but if Emery drops a player because he isn't performing then that policy should apply to all the players. Sokratis, Xhaka, Kolasinac and Luiz have all been inconsistent but yet they still get to start every game.
We have Crystal Palace next up, be sure to stay tuned for that games preview.
