Arsenal: “Play your best players” has a whole new meaning

On the one hand, Unai Emery is doing the smart thing at Arsenal. On the other, the smart thing just became stupid and needs to be reassessed.

Yes, the #EmeryOut camp has more ammunition than they will ever need to justify the immediate removal of Unai Emery from Arsenal. That said, I do have to say that he has been putting out all his best players to try to rescue the club. And that includes Nicolas Pepe, who still got a chunky 45 minutes despite not starting.

He was playing his best players, and when you’re a manager in distress, you can’t do much worse than that. All his superstars, all his big earners, they’ve all been out there doing their best, trying to lift the club.

That said, “play your best player” has just taken on a whole new meaning. Because our best players aren’t our best players anymore.

Arsenal

Before, I’d have said that as long as you stick Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang out there, you have a firm foundation to stand on. Build around that and you’re in good shape.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

• 3 standout players from 1-0 victory over Everton
• 3 positives & negatives from Goodison Park victory
• Arsenal vs PSV preview: Prediction, team news & lineups
• 3 talking points from Arsenal’s victory at Goodison Park
• Mikel Arteta provides Gabriel Martinelli injury update after Everton win

Now, it’s changing. Our best players aren’t necessarily the most talented anymore. Our best players are those that will actually be affected by poor results.

That means the youngsters.

Joe Willock and Gabriel Martinelli changed the game against Southampton. Sure, they had fresh legs, but that’s a poor excuse to discredit them (though no one is trying). Willock cleared the ball off the line to prevent the match going 3-1 and Martinelli countered at the other end with tremendous dribbling and an assist to the savior, Alexandre Lacazette.

We’ve also seen solid performances from Bukayo Saka recently, and while there is going to be a lot of grief if Pepe doesn’t start going forward, Emery can’t worry about public opinion anymore (assuming he’s still coach when I publish this). He needs to change up philosophy entirely, and that means ignoring talent, reputation and wage in favor of fight, passion and raw talent.

Give the ball to Saka, Martinelli, Willock. Let them introduce the future of the club and leave the past behind. There’s no other way to look at this.

In the mean time, always start Lacazette. Please. Because if we don’t we are even more helpless  than we would otherwise be. There are options here, and Emery needs to exercise them while he still can to avoid any additional regrets.