Surely now?

by Omkar Rege


The Saints have a been a thorn in Arsenal's path over the past few years. Since demolishing the gunners 4-0 in December 2015, Southampton has always been a tough work for Arsenal but you could always count on them to get one up over the saints at the Emirates. Well as Arsenal's graph is steadily spiralling downwards under Emery, it was always going to be a tougher ask for them to beat even a relegation threatened Southampton.

Thoroughly outplayed by at home, Arsenal reached a new low yesterday with no wins in 5 consecutive premier league games as they managed to snatch a point. Yes you heard that correct, the gunners 'snatched a point' late on in the 96th minute by a Lacazette goal who looked more disappointed than relieved after scoring the equalizer.

2-2 in the end but Southampton should have finished the north London job but they missed a bucket load of chances. It was a humiliating and utterly embarrassing performance by Arsenal. The atmosphere in the stadium was feeble from the start as both sets of fans seemed severely disinterested but more so the Arsenal fans who had to watch their team concede in just the 8th minute as Danny Ings silenced the Emirates crowd by scoring Southampton's first. The gunners responded pretty quickly as Lacazette scored from a nice Arsenal move in the 18th minute. From then onwards till full time it was a basketball game as both teams were playing off of each other's mistakes. 

It was quite entertaining from a neutral perspective but for the 50,000 Arsenal supporters in the stadium, it was appalling to watch. It was a diabolical display from the North London team.

It remains to be seen if that Lacazette equaliser will give Arsenal a new life or has it just prolonged Emery's stay at the Emirates.

If it is the latter however, it feels pertinent to say that it is 'bad'. Raul and KSE can continue to persist with this and hope for the better as much as they can handle but the cold fact is that Arsenal are showing absolutely no signs of improvement under Emery.

Arsene Wenger's final season which was Arsenal's worst season in 22 years feels like a dream compared to what Emery is producing at the moment. It sounds harsh on Emery and particularly the players who look completely oblivious and don't seem to comprehend what the manager wants from them but its the truth. It also seems like some of the players don't wanna play for Emery anymore.

A lot has been said about Emery's style of play and I have pondered over it time and again and I wrote last time around that he just doesn't have one. A lack of a philosophy wasn't much of a problem for Arsenal for the majority of last season as they, albeit riding their luck at times strode forward and were quite comfortably in the top 4 bracket till March. But since April till date Emery has created problems in his team by failing to inculcate a pattern of play.

We all know what happened last season in Baku and the matches leading up to it and this season has been nothing short of a misery for Arsenal. Whether its all down to Emery or the players just aren't good enough will always be debatable but when its time for answers there's always one man to point fingers at for the failures of a team on the pitch and that's the manager.

Its not pretty and it may or may not always be the right call, but what isn't right and is clearly visible is Arsenal's infirmity on the football pitch and for that Emery needs to be sacked.

The hierarchy upstairs has to make this decision in the coming days. Because at this point it doesn't matter if they have a replacement lined up or not but what does matter is Arsenal's position this campaign and a champions league place next season is paramount for the gunners.

Freddie Ljungberg can take over the proceedings while Raul and co have a look at other options. Arsenal need a fresh face in the coaching staff, someone with new ideas as Emery just doesn't have anymore left. This is not to say that the Spaniard is a bad coach. He has won numerous trophies in his managerial career and his time at Valencia, Sevilla and PSG demonstrate that. Sometimes it happens that an environment or the anatomy of a club is not always suitable to a manager. Even Manchester City's owners waited till they put a proper structure in place that would befit Pep Guardiola before pursuing him. Filling in Arsene Wenger's shoes and remodeling a dysfunctional squad was always a difficult job for Emery and he was just at the wrong club at the wrong time. He himself will also learn a lot from his time at Arsenal and he will have no qualms finding a new job based on his impressive CV. Its just that Emery and Arsenal are not meant to be.

Comparing matters at other clubs isn't something that I normally resort to but it feels like something needs to be said about how Tottenham addressed their managerial situation. Parting ways with Mauricio Pochettino, someone who put Spurs on the map doesn't seem like a wise thing to do but what it does suggest is that there is a level of decisiveness at Tottenham and that their board won't accept mediocrity.

The Arsenal board on the flip side seem to be turning a blind eye towards Emery's failings. Whether its down to the financial aspect of sacking personnel in the middle of their contract we'll never know. But Arsenal would be losing a lot more than paying off Emery and his staff if they don't qualify for the champions league. It has reached a point where the blame is apportioned to Raul and co as well for not taking an action sooner and allowing this to fester on and the relationship between fans and the Arsenal board is equally diminishing. 

Gone are the days when sacking managers was something only small clubs would do. The likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Juventus, Borussia Dortmund have all changed their coaches in recent years. Bayern Munich, Olympique Lyonnais and Spurs this past week did so mid season to alter their club's fortunes. So Arsenal pulling the trigger for the better won't be unwarranted especially if they still classify themselves among these top European clubs.

Either way whether you are Emery in or out, it is a waiting game at Arsenal, wait for Emery to get sacked or wait for things to improve under Emery.