Arsenal are the same old shambles despite all the changes in the summer
There were glimpses of what Unai Emery is trying to do with his Gunners squad but it was the problems that haunted Arsene Wenger's final seasons on show once again at the Emirates
THE more things change, the more they stay the same.
New manager, new set-up, new philosophy, and same old shambles.
Welcome to the brave new world of Unai Emery, where Arsenal’s new-found enthusiasm lasted all of ten minutes into their first game of the season.
That’s how long it took for the supporters to realise that their team are still light years away from being title contenders.
For the past two months all we have heard coming out of the Emirates was that things were going to be different now, that Arsene Wenger had finally packed his bags.
But the same old frailties were there for all to see as Emery’s pressing game was picked apart by the Premier League champions.
It is all very well playing out from the back, but not when you keep playing it straight to the opposition as Arsenal did all afternoon.
No-one was more guilty than Matteo Guendouzi, the French teenager who not only looks like David Luiz but plays like him as well.
One particularly horrendous error of judgement saw him miss a long boot out of defence by Kyle Walker which presented Sergio Aguero with a free run on goal.
Yet Granit Xhaka was just as culpable, taking up where he left off last season as the player the fans love to hate.
Sign up for Dream Team 2018/19 now
- Dream Team is back and better than ever ahead of the new Premier League season
- Completely free to play
- £400k jackpot up for grabs across the season
Matteo Guendouzi struggled at times on his Arsenal debut
You suspect that it will be Guendouzi rather than Xhaka who will make way when new signing Lucas Torreira is fully up to speed and ready to take his place in the starting line-up.
Yet the Swiss international has had more than enough chances to justify his £35million transfer fee and is no more convincing now than he was when he first arrived two years ago.
Sokratis Papastathopoulos, recruited to bring extra steel to the back four, spent the afternoon chasing the shadows of Aguero, Raheem Sterling and Riyad Mahrez.
And what of Mesut Ozil, playing in a more withdrawn role under Emery in order to get him more involved in the game?
During the fall-out from his international retirement, Ozil had proudly declared that he had two hearts - one German and the other Turkish.
It was a statement which came as quite a surprise to those of us who have watched him on a regular basis recently - because we didn’t realise he had any heart at all.
Emery seemed to spend most of his energy on the touchline urging Ozil forward and imploring him to put in more of a shift.
But he was simply wasting his breath.
Most read in football
Ozil is not going to change his ways for anyone. And his £350,000-a-week pay packet makes him virtually bomb-proof.
The new Arsenal manager was hardly helped by the loss of third-choice left-back Ainsley Maitland-Niles following a 30th-minute collision with Kyle Walker.
But his team were already a goal down by then and lucky not to be further behind.
Cech, preferred in goal to new signing Bernd Leno, had kept them in touching distance with crucial saves from Sterling, Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte and Aguero.
But he was leaden-footed when Sterling fired through a crowd of defenders to give City the lead and powerless to keep out Bernardo Silva’s 65th-minute piledriver.
Emery, barely able to believe his eyes, turned to his bench with arms outstretched as if to ask “what the f*** is going on?”
A few yards away in the City dug-out, Mikel Arteta was breathing a huge sigh of relief at having been passed over for this particular poisoned chalice.
And somewhere from the posh parts of Barnet, an old Frenchman could be forgiven a little chuckle as he watched the famous ‘catalyst for change’ unravelling before his eyes.
"Arsene Wenger, he left coz you’re s***" sang the gloating City fans crammed into the Clock End.
Even Emery would have found it difficult to disagree with that damning verdict.