Arsenal vs West Ham: One last hurrah for the old boys?

Arsenal have gotten over the hump, and now face West Ham, a team that should not give them troubles. So do we give the remnants one more chance?

Arsenal‘s opening two losses against Manchester City and Chelsea were far from the end of the world. The team did not look abysmal and in the ways that they did slack (mainly in the attack), we know that they will be just fine.

That said, the question has been asked and must be asked again – how long before we start filtering out some of the remnants of the Wenger era in favor of moving forward with Unai Emery’s guys.

I understand Emery’s desire to maximize the talent that is already here, as well as his desire not to jump ship at the first sign of trouble, but there needs to be a set time limit for if these continue to go wrong. You can ‘stay the course’ like a trooper, but eventually you will have to change course to avoid an utter catastrophe.

Though it is only the third game of the season, if it were up to me, that cut off point would be against West Ham. The Hammers simply are not a good team, and playing at the Emirates, it’s a team that the Gunners should be able to handily put away. Which is why, if it has to be done, I’m in favor of giving all of the leftovers one more chance to prove that the new era of this club isn’t leaving them behind.

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And by leftovers, as of right now I only mean Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka, neither of whom look ready to confront the present in any way. They look stuck in a Wenger era, which makes complete sense, since they are Wenger players, but for the sake of the club, you can only give them so long to adjust themselves in actual live-game action before you ask them to adjust from the sidelines, and in the locker room.

For the sake of keeping the faith though, what’s the harm in giving them another chance against a team that isn’t going to stress them out? Or at least shouldn’t. If it does stress them out, then you already have the answer you’ve been looking for.

I know I’ve been calling for immediate changes, but I can get why Emery is trying to honor what Wenger left behind. It’s a part of the culture of the club, whether we like it or not, and ripping out the roots is rarely ever a good idea for continual growth within the club. And even if they do get benched, it’s ideally just temporary. If they come back, that means they got better.

In the end, we will be fine. It’s important to remind ourselves of that every so often. Even if the worst comes to pass against West Ham, things will get better.