When you are headed up Merde Creek, the one thing you shouldn’t do is throw away the paddle, and yet that’s effectively what Unai Emery did in Arsenal’s Europa League Round of 16 first leg defeat against Rennes, with his late substitution of Pierre-Emeric Aubameyang for Sead Kolasinac.

Other than the lucky Alex Iwobi goal early on (Iwobi was surely crossing rather than shooting) and an assured performance by Petr Cech in goal, almost everything went wrong for Arsenal against Rennes. The defence was typically dreadful, with Sokratis’ red card for two stupid offences (especially the first, when he simply kicked a Rennes player from behind) the ‘standout’ display. The midfield lacked all creativity, as the Gunners have gone from having no holding midfielder for an entire decade to now having three in the team at once. It has to be admitted that Aubameyang played really poorly, giving the kind of performance that shows why, for all his undoubted goal-scoring ability, he never got his dream move to Real Madrid or another elite club. Sadly, Arsenal no longer merit that description.

Was Unai Emery’s Substitution Against Rennes the Worst Ever?

Substitution of Aubameyang Was Still Extraordinary

So it may appear unduly critical to concentrate on the decision by Emery to replace Aubameyang with Kolasinac in the 79^th minute. Unfortunately, it isn’t, because it was such an extraordinarily bad decision that it effectively condemned Arsenal to a two-goal defeat rather than the narrow one-goal defeat that would have been much easier to overcome in the second leg at The Emirates next week.

Notwithstanding Aubameyang’s poor display while he was on the pitch, especially his apparently complete inability to hold the ball up to allow attacking midfielders to join him up front (Alexandre Lacazette definitely has the edge in that department, although Aubameyang is the better finisher), to replace him with a wing-back like Kolasinac was perverse, to say the least. After Lacazette had been red-carded against BATE in the previous round, the Frenchman was obviously not on the bench. However, Emery still had a substitute striker in Eddie Nketiah. Nketiah is obviously very young and very inexperienced, and he hasn’t done much (if anything) since his League Cup heroics against Norwich City last season, but he is still a striker and a pacy one at that.

By replacing Aubabmeyang with Kolasinac, and using Aaron Ramsey as a false nine (that appeared to be the change although, like so much of Arsenal’s play against Rennes, it is impossible to say for certain), Emery completely surrendered the initiative to the French side in the final minutes. Without a front man, or at least a front man with pace (Ramsey does not qualify in that regard), Arsenal’s chances of getting a late and undeserved equaliser were virtually non-existent. Worse, it was a decision that virtually invited Rennes to attack Arsenal late on, to try and get a potentially decisive third goal, which of course they duly did when they counter-attacked from a typically blunt Arsenal attack.

Arsenal Need An Entirely New Defence

Of course, it is perhaps just possible that Emery brought Kolasinac on to somehow shore up the Arsenal defence and hang on to a narrow one-goal defeat. Well, if that was the plan, then he truly is the only person who has any faith in Arsenal’s defence, especially after last night’s evisceration of it by the speed of Ismaïla Sarr, whose burst past Sokratis led to the Greek’s sending-off, before the Senegalese winger scored Rennes’ third goal.

What last night proved, beyond any doubt, is that Arsenal now need an entirely new defence. Against Rennes, the two stalwarts of recent seasons (in as much as Arsenal have had anyone deserving of that description), Nacho Monreal and Laurent Koscielny, were decisively shown to be no longer capable of playing at a high level. Both were repeatedly exposed for pace, especially by Sarr, and Monreal was left in such a dizzying dither that he scored an own-goal. It is truly frightening to think what Manchester United’s fast forwards, especially Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial (who is reported to be returning from injury), will do to the Arsenal back four, given that they can add great skill, trickery and dribbling ability to the pace that did for Arsenal against Rennes.

So, if Emery was somehow banking on Arsenal’s defence to hold out for the last ten to 15 minutes against Rennes, he was sadly mistaken, and by removing Aubameyang and not replacing him with another striker (even one as young and unproven as Nketiah), he only added to the pressure that the defence was under, before it finally collapsed completely for the third goal.

Worse Than Graham Taylor at Euro 92

The only possible comparison to Emery’s change last night was nearly 30 years ago, in Euro 92, when Graham Taylor replaced the great Gary Lineker with the relatively pedestrian Alan Smith, as England trailed late on against Sweden and faced elimination. Smith was, at least, another striker, whereas Kolasinac is a full-back/wingback who was never likely to create or score the goal that Arsenal needed to level the first leg.

A week today, Arsenal’s season could effectively be over. At the moment, given the form and morale of the two sides, it is virtually impossible to see anything other than a comfortable Manchester United win at The Emirates, just like in the FA Cup a few weeks ago, which would surely kill off Arsenal’s last faint hopes of making the top four in the Premier League. By needlessly, foolishly, conceding a two-goal first leg lead to Rennes, Arsenal have made their chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Europa League much harder than they would have been if they had only lost by one goal. If Rennes score even one goal in the second leg, and given Arsenal’s dreadful defence that seems almost inevitable, Arsenal will have to score four goals to go through. Without Lacazette, who will be serving the final match of his European ban, and with Aubameyang in such poor form, that would certainly not be easy.

Monchi Arrival May Come Too Late For Emery

If, as many Arsenal fans now fear, the club’s season is over by next Friday, then the pressure on Unai Emery will become intense. There may be rumours at the moment that Monchi, his former director of football at Sevilla (who many attribute Sevilla’s Europa League success to, rather than Emery), will be leaving Roma and coming to The Emirates this summer. However, the way things are going right now, Emery might be gone from Arsenal before Monchi even arrives.