Unai Emery described last night’s 0-0 draw with Sporting as ‘difficult’, and despite the fact we’ve now qualified for the knockout stages of the Europa League says his team are still on course to top their group.
Arsenal face Vorslka in Ukraine at the end of November, before a final game against Qarabag at the Emirates in December.
The draw with the Portuguese side leaves the group a bit more open than the Spaniard would have liked, but he did give credit to the opposition.
“I think it’s the merit of them,” he said when asked about last night’s stalemate.
“They are a very competitive team, organised, and they worked very well. I’m happy for us also, because very player worked well with very good commitment.
“But it was a difficult game. We remember the match in Lisbon, it was also difficult. We won that and now we can say those three points away were very important for us.
“This point today isn’t enough for us but at the moment we are on target to be first in the group.
“We are first at the moment and we are going to continue on our way for that.”
As for his plans for the next two games and whether he’d rotate to keep players fresh for the Premier League, he continued, “Our mind is to be first in the group.
“Then every match we want the best performance from every player. We want to use the players that we think for each match, and think about the next one.
“After this match, we think about Sunday’s game against Wolverhampton here, and continue to create our ideas. This match gave us a lot of information for continuing collectively and individually.
“Some players need to take responsibility and confidence. I think there were a lot of positives tonight.”
Arsenal 0-0 Sporting: Gunners go through but Welbeck injury overshadows everything else
We will be top of the group. I’ve predicted it.
A win and draw will be enough to see us through provided Sporting win their remaining games which of course is not guaranteed. My hope is that we can get the job done whilst rotating as whatever happens we have qualified and the Premier League has to be the priority
Also deeply saddened about what happened to Welbeck last night. Really hope it’s not as serious as people think. If I can find one positive is that it might open the door for Nketiah to get more involved and hopefully impress
One win against the two weakest teams in the group will do it, given we have a better record vs Sporting Lisbon.
1.Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; is the top criteria.
Ah ok my bad. That makes our task a little easier
Is this the arses now ?
Wolves is the more important focus at the moment. The group is well managed as far as Europa league is concerned.
Positives would be Sokratis worked back in thru 90 mins with no issues.
AMN “forcibly” and finally played as Rback.
Guendouzi looked productive and sharp.
I thought Mhki had a more influential match particularly starting as AM and able to roam.