Unai Emery praised goalkeeper Bernd Leno for his impressive performance against Wolves as his lacklustre Arsenal stumbled to a 1-1 draw at the Emirates.
Nuno Espirito Santo’s energetic and organised outfit were by far the better side in the first half and deservedly took the lead courtesy of Ivan Cavaleiro’s close-range finish on 13 minutes.
The visitors had chances to extend their lead before and after the break but couldn’t get the better of Leno, who was starting his sixth successive Premier League game. The German even had to bail his team-mates out after Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s late equaliser as they threw caution to the wind going in search of a winner, only to get caught on the break.
After the match, Emery told his post-game press conference that his side took a lot of risks going in search of the three points:
“We knew that today we needed the goalkeeper with his performance, because when we are taking risks in our attacking moments, and to give them a transition and options in the transitional moments we would need the goalkeeper. Today I thought his [Leno’s] performance was good for us.”
While the Spaniard was left frustrated by two dropped points, he admits it could have been worse.
“We know they are very competitive team and also organised and good on the break. In the 90 minutes tactically, it’s enough today for a win.
“For us, after, when we were drawing, we continued taking risks because we wanted to win but also conceded some chances for them. Then, we finished not happy with this point but we also recognised their work.
He added: “It was very difficult to find a goal or break through their lines defensively. Their transition was a very good transition.
“We didn’t want to concede another goal because it makes it more difficult, but our idea changed a little bit because we spoke at half-time. We needed to take more risks in the match.
“The risks were thinking that we could win but we also needed good balance in the transition against a good team with good transitions. I think the team played with character and we had chances to draw before our goal.
“We also continued to look for ways to create and to win the game but then we drew. In the last five or 10 minutes, we had the same idea with the risk but also thinking to win. At the end of the game we could say, ‘OK, the two teams both deserved it’.”
Having been on a 7-game winning streak in the league, three consecutive draws against Crystal Palace, Liverpool and Wolves mean a three-point gap has opened up between us and fourth-placed Sp*rs.
It’s something we’ll have to rectify after the Interlull, which now kicks in for two weeks.
Shame, I was hoping for a boost before the Interlull.
Not a great performance, well done our new number 1 keeper.
And at least the unbeaten run continues.
We’ll take it, Wolves could have make us pay for our “risks” as the Boss pointed out. COYG
“We know they are very competitive team and also organised and good on the break.”
Soooo let’s push all our players as far up the pitch as possible from the first minute and leave our two central defenders to deal with their counter attacks.
Also, did anyone think our substitutions could’ve been much better? Guendouzi for Iwobi was a weird one, and surely you don’t take Ozil out in a home match when you have 70+% possession and you’re chasing the lead?
in the first half arsenal were struggling to create anything partly because ozil was too involved in the buildup and not enough involved up the field to create chances. while there are two other attackiing midfielders apart from ozil one of them is iwobi who continually lost possession trying to dribble and another aubamayang who is not good with ball at his feat. so emery subbed iwobi to bring in extra midfielder so that they could push ozil further forward and give him ball in attacking third so that he can create chances for his teammates and it worked partly… Read more »
At the game today I thought Iwobi kept breaking our play in the first half with some poor passes, I don’t think he likes playing from the right, he wasn’t there enough or get Bellerin into the game enough. Ozil was anonymous for most of the game, we looked better when he came off too. Not sure there was enough running for him to make the passes to be fair, but as it wasn’t working we did get better with the change. Wenger would have left him on all game even if he was ineffectual. I think it’s was good… Read more »
It doesn’t matter how many years you give Emery. Guardiola had hundreds of millions to spend and Emery wont get anything close to such. He would face same constraints as Wenger but he’s no genius like Wenger. Arsenal has been less dominant than last season. We’ve failed to lead a game at halftime and been outplayed by the likes of Everton, Watford and Wolves at home. Last season Arsenal beat all teams outside of top 5 plus Spurs at home. We’ve been scrappy in midfield but it’s been masked by fulltime results.
In his first season at City, Pep drew at Home against the likes of Middlesborough and Southampton, and got spanked by Everton and Leicester.
It’s called a transition and it isn’t easy. I understand frustrations on a match-by-match basis but lets not get unhelpfully impatient with the process already mate!
…And the next season, Pep spent hundreds of millions of pounds on top of the one spent in his first season. It’s no coincidence that he is miles ahead of others.
Emery would get a budget lower than Fulham’s by the summer. The Pep reference many make always completely ignore the massive investment that followed it. Besides, Emery is no Guardiola.
Usually the interlull seems to come at the worst time but I think this will be a good time for us to regroup and get back to winning ways.
Well done Leno, proving the doubters wrong, which is great to see!
Leno did his job today. Good showing and MOTM. In truth they did not trouble us that much beside the goal and the two Traore inspired opportunities late on (including the one that hit the bar and post from Neves) More so we did not seem to get going. This was against a team who sat deep to choke our passing lanes off. Again bc of the composition of the team, we tried to pass through but we really needed someone to engage them quicker and pull them apart. As mentioned Iwobi is one of the few assets that can… Read more »