Arsenal Vs Manchester City

Still early days, but at least there's some positive signs.

You should have bought a winger and I don't know why you didn't

Would've been nice if Özil/Laca were more aware of the offside line and with a bit more sharpness in the shots.

I like what I saw of Torriera.
Guendouzi has potential, but this was the deep end for him today.

Things looked marginally better on that wing once Lichtsteiner came on?

Here's my warning in regards to Emery... he's very much like Rudi Garcia and even Wenger if we're honest. There's plan A... and then there's plan A. So plan A better work. There's a level of stubbornness that is a bit crazy.

There's nothing wrong with that as long as you're able to motivate your players to get that kind of discipline out of them. He's not Pep or Klopp level motivator unfortunately, which is what you need.

Second issue is that he didn't handle personalities well at PSG at all.

XHAKA is only good at an occasional long pass. He can't press and defend. He can't run. He can't make himself available for a pass. Yet the guy wants to be a starter. Even Wenger started him. Now Emery is doing the same.

Please tell me I am wrong and XHAKA is good player???

I wouldn't mind seeing Lichtsteiner start games over Bellerin, we need that kind of leadership.

Not gonna lie, that was a pretty rubbish effort.

Ozil RM, Mkhi LM and Ramsey... SS? Okay, I know we want Ramsey to lead the press but when we got the ball we had no options in the centre. Our best player was stranded on the wing doing defensive work (which he did admirably well).

Mkhi did a terrible job tracking Walker and it resulted in all sorts of problems on that flank. We're defending narrow as a plan, but it backfired spectacularly because City have great wingers who hold their width. The amount of space Mahrez was getting was insane.

Sterling's goal: good finish, but poor from Bellerin and Guendouzi not to get something on the ball.

We adjusted a bit and got more of a foothold in the game. That was good. But even then, the attack, usually our saving grace, was very poor. They looked like strangers on that pitch. so I can only assume the attacking plan tonight wasn't too clear. Not to mention the number of bad touches.

This was the first time we really saw the press, and it was decent. We forced them into some errors, but other times we did it poorly. City are great at playing out, so this is fine for a work in progress.

At the other end, our own playing out was rubbish. Too slow and too many bad passes, like Cech almost passing into his own net. You knew it was a bust the moment we started kicking long.

I'm patient and understanding of the fact that it's going to take time for the players to fully understand what Emery wants. Nonetheless, the yawning gap in quality in every department is no less depressing. We have a long *bleep* way to go.

Their second goal deserves a post on its own. Just horrific defending, leaving 4v5 at the back and watching the rest of the team jog back into position.

I think arsenal stumbled under pressure and that is because of our two deepest midfielders who didn't get in good positions. Having ozil play behind the front 3 was shocking. Man the problem is tactical again. Emery needs to sort things out.

I want to believe that we can improve much defensively but I don't see it.

We're going to have to rely on LMAO scoring the goals to win us games. I can see this season being like that one in 08/09 where we were exciting in attack but horrific in defence, but we did end up finishing in the top 4 so I'd be fine with that.

So long as we win the lesser games, losing to City is not a big deal as our main goal is finishing in the top 4.

Liverpool and Man U are better than Arsenal without a doubt imo. It will come down to the Spurs. I like the Spurs more (and significantly so unfortunately)... it's going to be up to Arsenal to exceed expectations in a lot of ways.

My prediction is 5th place tbh.

Expected us to be sharper than them which wasn't the case
Mendy and Walker were doing everything

disliked this shape
hope its not how we set up most games

Ramsey further up wast useful
XHAKA shouldn't be in the team and Özil had a very poor game

Unai Emery spoke to Sky Sports following the 2-0 defeat to Man City. This is what he had to say about his first game in charge of the club – and his English is still a work in progress so we’ve cleaned it slightly up in places but also left as is in others because we don’t want to misquote or change the context of what he said.

What did you make of your team’s performance today?

I think the result is like the things on the pitch are happen [basically saying the result was fair based on the performances of the two sides], but the first half I think we were a little less better than City.

1-0 for us is to try to change things on the pitch in the second half, believe more in our moment in the match to do a bit more aggressive pressing. When we can break their lines on the pitch. I think in the second half the team are getting better, but also the 2-0 close our options on this game.

What did you learn about your team today?

We are a new team to improve. For me today is a little frustration to lose but also is one space more for continuing and progressing, and also is one process. Our performance we’re thinking to improve, and the first match is good to play against Man City, but also maybe a bit more difficult than our season is this year.

What was the big positive, and the biggest negative?

The second half, the speed, we had chances to do one score and to do something in this game. The first half for me, we need to believe more than our performance.

The result is like the things on the field are happen tbh

Arsenal have a great squad but I don't think Emery is one to get the best out of the lot. Should have gotten a real big team coach, Ancelotti.

It was also incredibly stupid to throw that youngster from Ligue 2 right under the bus in the centre of midfield against a fierce team like Man City.

Our squad isn't that great. We did well in the transfer window, but still it's not enough when you consider that someone like Mahrez cost as much as all our signings put together.

We have to punch above our weight and Emery has proven he can make teams do that, but he's not going to do it immediately.

- I do like what Unay trying to do with playing out from the back but we don't have the personnel for that, Cech, Sokratis & Mustafi were all very uncomfortable whenever called upon receiving the ball.

- It seems to be his preference but from all pre season and this games, he likes narrow defensively. Wonder if it's because we don't have natural wingers

- He obviously still toying around with attacking side so that weird attacking shape won't stay imo.

All are still tweaking around though, I hope we can get a stable shape by September.

The reaction to the match is absolutely ridiculous

Seems like they were expecting Emery to personally get on the pitch and score a hattrick using his ass against the best team in the league and one of the best in Europe.

Big sam "Emery's tactics were stupid"
Tony Adams " What has Emery been doing for the last 5-6 weeks?"

?????

I know they both are terrible pundits n all but jesus. It's the same with half the other journalists and newspapers

i would have been angry if this performance was under a coach who was in charge for considerable time but first official match and against one of the strongest teams we will face all season

just hope the set up will be different next match

Sina wrote:
disliked this shape
hope its not how we set up most games

Ramsey further up wasnt useful

Ramsey had 19 Touches in 54 Minutes ffs

Torreira had same number in around 20 minutes

Ramsey wasn't very good but tbf he just came back from injury. I wouldn't start him against Chelsea though, go wtih the same midfield we had vs Lazio: Guendouzi, Torreira, XHAKA.

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Adrian Clarke dissects the positives and negatives from our 2-0 Premier League defeat to Manchester City


https://player.arsenal.com/video/final-word-unai-emerys-first-game