Unai Emery says Arsenal’s win at Bournemouth was a ‘big moment’ for his side following three consecutive draws in the Premier League.
The Gunners 2-1 victory, courtesy of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s second half strike, closes the gap on fourth place Chelsea to just a point ahead of tricky games with Sp*rs and Manchester United.
The result also extends the club’s unbeaten run to 17 games although they once again failed to take a lead into the half-time break.
“The result is very important,” reflected Emery after the game.
“We spoke in the dressing room at half-time, the process is our mentality. The result is very important. When they scored we needed to keep calm, keep control and get better in small things on the pitch.
“We knew this was a difficult stadium. For them, it was an important match so I am very happy for the players and the supporters, who pushed us today.
“Today is 17 matches we haven’t lost. But the last three we drew and we knew that was not enough for our objective.
“We were speaking during the week about how important it was today. It was a big moment for us.”
Before Arsenal return to league action, there’s a trip to Ukraine to tackle. Emery will likely ring the changes for Thursday’s match with Vorskla, but with a few players injured, he might not be able to rotate as much as he’d like.
One player who didn’t feature today was Mesut Ozil. The German was on the bench but he didn’t even get sent out to warm up. Instead, Aaron Ramsey, Matteo Guendouzi and Eddie Nketiah came on for late cameos.
Explaining his decision, Emery said: “We thought about how we can be better in the match today, with a very demanding match physically with their intensity against us and we decided.
“But every player is important. Also today we tried with three centre-backs. It’s another opportunity to improve and find our best performance.”
Well to be honest,i wont be too unhappy to sit on the bench and rake in 300,000 pounds a week with the assurance of being paid the same for next two years.
I imagine that attitude is one reason why you never got the opportunity to be paid that much.
Hahaha crazy dude, i thought miky was shit through out, would have preferred our mozart got some minutes
There´s only one Mozart and that is our very own Tomas Rosicky! Yep, would love to see him get some minutes as well.
He’s not our Mozart… There’s only 1 Mozart his name Rosicky please do not forget this piece of information for the rest of your life. Thanks and God bless
Ahaha 😉 still struggling to earn 400 pounds a month
not all people on crazy money have professional attitudes
Big 3 points.
Very lucky the ‘offside’ for the Cherries not awarded.
BUT this keeps us just behind Chelshit and Spurts with a big derby win to come.
Good way to end November. December will be tough.
Decembers the month that will decide our final position I suspect
I suspect it’ll be May
true enough. given the points, 3 points against spurs is more important than heaping misery on united. lets hope we do both
Thought Emery got it right today. Although I don’t like to see Ozil on the bench anytime, playing a back three against a very fast Bournemouth team that likes to attack down the flanks was a good strategy. It also allowed Kolasinac some cover and to push forward which is the best part of his game. This team has given us fits it the past, and we took the starch out of their attack, especially in the second half.
The biggest positive side of this formation and the game was Kolasinic – his weakness offsetted and his strengths accentuated big time.
It also freed up Bellerin, don’t forget, who is really a natural in his position today. If we’d had a proper performance from Mikhitaryan today we would have blown the doors off that game.
Kola was merely good today, like decent, because he didn’t have to defend hard. Came through with a nice pass to Auba.
Curious if Xhaka would have been good in that position rather than Kola, though, put Guendouzi where Xhaka was…. I was not as underwhelmed by Xhaka filling in at LB as many were.
Xhaka is just too slow, particularly when forced to change direction, to be a solution at left back. I have no complaints about the effort he has put in at the position, but the only part of him that is suited for it is his favorite foot is on the proper side. That said, I was impressed a few times today by how he ran over there to cover for the inexpicably absent Kolasinac. It’s almost as if having to play a defensive position has increased his awareness of defending that position… If only being made to play left back… Read more »
Just want to be clear: was not suggesting Xhaka @ LB as permanent solution, just that as a fill-in he did better than many people say. The point I wanted to highlight was that had Xhaka been put in Kola’s position today, Guendouzi in Xhaka’s position… could have been better maybe, that’s all. Food for thought for future.
I liked the 3-4-3 today, I’ve been skeptical of putting too much on our back line but Holding’s improvement made that possible today.
Pity the draws. We should have won at least one of those 3. Particularly wolves and Palace aren’t all that. So a third of the season in and we are in the running for top 4 at the moment. Still early days so its important for us to peak at the right time. As is we have plenty of work to do and are the sleeper in the group. still think we could do with one signing January to propel us further. Preferably a wide attacking asset. I think there has been mention of Nicholas Pepe who wont be cup… Read more »
We seem to be getting the rub of the green at the moment and whilst there are still lots of concerns about our defence I can’t complain about the results. Didn’t expect us to have the number of points we have at this stage – a good feeling!! Another three at the weekend would be nice. COYG!!