Unai Emery says he was pleased with Arsenal’s performance as Alex Lacazette’s late goal rescued a well-deserved point against Liverpool at the Emirates.
The Frenchman cancelled out James Milner’s strike with eight minutes remaining and while the Gunners couldn’t find a winner, the vibe on the terraces was positive at the final whistle.
Emery had called for big performances from his players on Friday and he wasn’t let down with the likes of Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira, Rob Holding and Shkodran Mustafi all excelling.
Speaking to BT Sport after the final whistle, Unai Emery reflected: “We wanted to win but the performance is good, we push and we work the match, doing our tactics and with our supporters pushing us with energy.
“For the supporters it is a great match and a good spectacle but I am only 50% happy because we wanted to win.
“Today the balance was good in our speed and intensity. We worked very well for the 90 minutes and the two goals is the difference in the match. This is a point and a draw, maybe we deserve a little more.”
He added: “I think the progress takes a long time. Against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool, these were teams were all in front of us. I think in these three matches, today was the most complete performance.”
When Liverpool scored I was 100% sad.
When Lacca scored I was 100% happy.
So that makes me 100% in agreement with Emery
Good performances from everyone except Mkhitaryan. Kolasinac did well considering had been out 3 months, holding & Mustafi were both solid. Torreira was motm.
Mkhitaryan played very well.
I think up/downs suggest, fairly, that he played well, just not “very well” – definitely didn’t look to me the only bad performance on the pitch.
Some nice touches that got us out of tight spots and opened up attacks nicely. He just doesn’t seem to deliver in the final 3rd atm
Pity we can’t ship Mkhitaryan off to Hoffenheim & bring back Nelson in Jan! They are not that stupid in Hoffenheim are they?
Fair scoreline I would say. We have our moments, and so did Liverpool. What important is that we can push Liverpool hard and we handled their attacking force pretty well. Though we only got 1 point, it’s a very positive result considering the quality of the opponent. And we play fluid attacking football against one of the best defense and goal keeper in the prem.
Özil is a next level kind of love hate relationship. He is super inconsistent ranging from pure genius one day and the next day he’s non existent. Today he was the latter. Özil was the guy to get subbed for Iwobi or Ramsey.
Mustafi was not solid, he got roasted by the BTSport pundits. But i get what u mean. I think the team did well to be compact and therefore not allow him to get sucked out of position like he usually does. The one time he did break ranks was a fierce and accurate sliding tackle to prevent a counter attack almost in the opposition third when Bellerin was out of position.
That’s a great point, I form pretty much all of my opinions based on TV pundits.
I watch Arsenal games with Portuguese commentary, which I don’t understand. I never watch pre game or post game analysis, and have not listened to a pundit in 8 years. My cousin spent the whole week telling me how bad we are against Liverpool and I had to tell him that we were playing at the Emirates. He was panicking about the game, because on television all he saw or heard was how bad we are or how good Liverpool are, now and historically. I sat him down and told him that Liverpool have only 2 wins in the Emirates… Read more »
Pundits & commentators really do colour opinion. I was away from my TV so bounced between a few different streams. Lee Dixon on one channel vs I guess Michael Owen (I ended that stream pretty fast!) vs Andy Townsend. All had different opinions…. and only Dixon had the right one!
Decent first half, both teams should have scored.
The Terrier and Xhaka were great. As were LMAO our upfront beauties. And Iwobi when he came on.
Fair result, we matched them at least. Gives us confidence things are moving in the right direction.
It was pleasing to see us dominate the midfield with Torreira and Xhaka despite Liverpool having three destroyers in there (Milner, Fabinho and Wanhydum). Klopp’s selection and set up goes to show you how much he respected Arsenal. He was worried about our attacking threat.
Not to be a Pedant but you posted the exact same comment in 3 articles. I think once is enough to let people know what you think :p
Anyway, i’m happy about the result. We didn’t fold and kept pushing and had great energy throughout. Onwards and upwards! #Progress #COYG!
Good spot. I posted first on the match report but was in moderation so no-one could see it. So posted first again in the player ratings, again in moderation so hidden from everyone. Not sure why, i rarely have very controversial views.
So posted it here again. Then finally the others appeared.
And this one…
Though the latest isn’t, strange.
Maybe we could get told why some comments go into m*deration, I’d be interested to see what is wrong in the comment above or any of mine.
Good spot. I posted first on the match report but my comment didn’t show so posted first again on the player ratings and the same happened. It finally showed on the third attempt here.
i think what Pedant is trying to say is he posted first on the match report but his comment didn’t show so he posted first again on the player ratings and the same happened. It finally showed on his third attempt here.
Good spot.
I’m 100% happy. The performance was fantastic. We can play with anyone. I wasn’t sure of that before this match. I am now. And a big thumbs up for Kola, not the easiest game to come back from injury to, and he did very well.
Lucas Torreira. The Mother of Intervention.
Proud to be a gooner. I won’t lie, I’m 75% happy even if of course I really wanted a win. But that performance was stuff of champions. Our new found grit is making me feel all shades of good and confident. Every one played really really well. I know Kola and Bellerin faced a late fitness test and I can’t help but feel like they played through a bit of discomfort but they were frigging awesome. Holding is just cool as ice, does his business and jogs off with minimal fuss like nothing’s happened. I wouldn’t mind him being a… Read more »
I’m 25% happy.
The key to taking us to that next level is to improve the defending. At times in the first half we were too open. And it still remains to be seen whether or not Leno is the world class goalkeeper we need. At the moment we need to score at least two goals to win a game. We hardly ever keep clean sheets. Our greatest ever manager, George Graham instinctively knew that winning matches starts from great defending. Emery has to get that too.
I agree that we were open and vulnarable at times, but have some patience, our defence will improve.
I would also argue that Wenger is our greatest manager ever and he did not give a shit about defence….
Attack is the best defence
GOYG
Herbert Chapman can give Wenger some competition.
You are about as boring as a sleeping sheep. MUFC is the team for you – boring defensive negative football – quoting a manager from the last century – when beer and chips was the lunch menu for footballers
Different times fatty… back in the GG era with the defenders we had and the lack of history of attacking forward thinking football it was possible to set up for the classic 1-0 tTA
Nowadays it’s a more complete league, requiring a rounded multi skilled team to be competitive- sure, our defence is not there, but that team performance was more than 25%
Graham is not the greatest manager, Fatso.
Still talking shit fatgooner. If we won every domestic trophy and the europa league this year you’d still be only “25%” happy. Twat
I’m 75% happy. Great that we can now go toe to toe with the likes of Liverpool, and could even have sneaked it today. Great energy & tempo to the game, great atmosphere, the Emirates was rocking. Incredible Laca goal, and decent performances across the pitch. Next step: beat one of the big 6. Starting with Spurs.
Beat one of the big 6? We already beat Everton… I do agree about needing to beat spurs though. You can’t win the league without beating the small clubs too
Yep this.
A win against Sp*rs would be most welcome.
So good to hear some atmosphere at the ground. Feels like some enjoyment is coming back to our club.
Pundits kept going on about the Liverpool front 3 looking subdued today.
YES Numbnuts, because our defence subdued them!
Rob Holding was my man of the match, I really tread lightly when I say this but he reminded me of a Tony Adams in his pomp with his display tonight. A quietly confident colossus.
It was our midfield who subdued them not the defense. If you have a good solid midfield your defense is going to look better. What is sad is it’s taken too long to field an Arsenal team with a decent defensive midfield. No team has won the league since forever without a solid DM and at last we have one. However, we need to start blooding a new one as for now we have no replacement for Torreria should (God forbid) he gets hurt. Guendouzi is a wonder boy but he doesn’t have the tenacity of a Torreria and more… Read more »
Amen on having a solid DM with passing and some play making ability. I vote for AMN as a backup DM along with his other “utility” duties.
Emery’s anti-gegenpress worked well, especially when you have a keeper who can move around and pass as well as Leno. Which worked well against Klopps tactic of trying to isolate the full backs. Something Sead would have struggled with because his turning speed is that of an oil tanker.
He may have cost us a goal but he enabled us to play to our strengths more than Liverpool did.
Good work by Emery and the coaches.
Arsene Wenger was at his house watching the game like.. “The old Arsenal is back and my prayers are with them”….The game was fantastic am really happy for the rest….Arsenal has been making me happy recently more than my girlfriend..
COYG…
I’m also ONLY 50% satisfied. I thought we could have taken them apart. We created chances and our movement was far better. We controlled the game most of the time winning the ball high up and denying them a chance to come at our defense. If anything their fullbacks were under more duress. The chances they had (and yes we were lucky) came more from set pieces. Clearly we still have work to do communicating with each other and picking up the danger. Otherwise we worked our way out of the back very well, and we picked them apart many… Read more »
I entirely agree but we also can’t understate how good a manager and coach Klopp is. He isn’t a fraud or anything. It’s because of how good he is and how good his team is that we’re this proud of how good the Arsenal played in this match. COYG
Press would have you Liverpool were competitive.
They had the better chances but merely bc we have work to do for those set pieces, In open play we were a notch above them and out played them for most parts.
Liverpool are overrated.
If we can take this belief into games against Spurts and Manure, we can catch Liverpuddle and Schitty.
Unai isn’t waiting 3 years like the media may deem to suggest to get us competitive. Clearly he is a man in a hurry. And he’s got us competitive again ironing out the details whilst still having us play the brilliant brand of football Wenger was so well known for. Subs today SPOT on. Welbeck overload two up front made immediate impact. Iwobi also engaged the opponents more directly pulling them out of shape. Contrary to cheap punditry, we dominated Liverpool. 62% possession rate. And we had the better movements even if they had equal chances in part mostly due… Read more »
Dude it’s called “Gegenpressing”!
Personally I prefer gherkinpressing. It’s what I do in my spare time.
No wonder Emery is only 50% happy. 2 consecutive draws in PL, lady luck was on Arsenal for the last 2 PL matches – Laca handball and Mane’s goal chalk-off. No clean sheets yet in PL for Leno (full match)….. but boys, you guys are on the right track! COYG!
Well done to the team we are improving. very proud today hopefully we can build on this result in the short term and back the manger in the long run in a few windows time we should be a right unit. Thanks for helping with my hangover uncle unaim
Unai. Sorry boss.
I Was 100 % sad when Leno parried into the path of Milner, I was 100% happy? when Lacca fired he’s beauty past Allison, that equals 50% happy for me. Terriera was immense throughout. I was concerned when Auba was subbed but what a through ball by he’s replacement Iwobi. The atmosphere inside stadium was electric ⚡️ last night. For the first time for years I was engaged in a top 6 encounter rather than waiting for the inevitable, last night made me realise how lethargic my support has been for 5 years. Can’t wait to see Emery 100% happy.
I couldn’t understand why they spent so long checking Milner for concussion.
I always thought that concussion was mild brain damage, so surely Milner should be immune?