Unai Emery says Arsenal paid the price for not taking their chances as they were beaten 2-0 by Sp*rs in the Carabao Cup.
On a night when the Gunners were far from their best we still managed to manufacture gilt-edged opportunities that were missed either side of the break by Henrikh Mkhitaryan and substitute Alex Lacazette.
To make matters worse, Mauricio Pochettino’s men, who lost at the Emirates earlier this month, were clinical on the break with goals by Son Heung-Min and Deli Alli killing the game inside an hour.
“I think we worked like we wanted to, like we’d prepared for this match,”reflected Emery in his post-game press conference.
“We created chances in the first half to score, but today the efficiency was not good for us.
“We didn’t concede a lot of chances, but they have good players with quality who scored.
“We worked for 90 minutes and in our moments we didn’t take our chances. They scored theirs.
“Only the first half, I think we were good on the pitch but then sometimes we needed a bit more of the ball to keep possession longer.
“But that’s not easy against them because they press really well. Our planned game, we worked on that. It was poor finishing.”
He added: “We had Micki with the one on one [chance early on] and they scored with their first one-on-one. but this is football.
“Today I am happy with our performance, but not happy with our result. But also I think we are doing our process.
“They are ahead of us in this process. We need to continue creating our identity, our strong ideas to be more consistent in the games.
“But this is our way. Now we’ve finished in this competition and are thinking about Saturday because we have another three very important competitions, the first is the Premier League, then the Europa League and also the FA Cup. Today we finished this competition.”
Without a number of defenders, Emery once again had little choice but to utilise midfielder Granit Xhaka in defence. Neither blessed with pace nor someone you’d necessarily pinpoint as a great tackler, he, like the rest of the backline which also featured Ainsley Maitland-Niles at right-back had a tough night.
Despite the result, the boss was pleased with the commitment of his players.
“Every player is helping us with big commitments, playing in different positions, because sometimes the team needs them there.
“Laurent Koscielny played on Sunday and after coming back from his injury, starting against Tottenham would have been a lot of minutes on the pitch.
“Granit is helping and I am happy with him and his performance. His commitment to help us is very important.”
After the game Sp*rs were drawn against Chelsea in the semi-final, while Manchester City, who won the competition last year, were handed a tie with Burton Albion.
More Possession. More Shots. Out of this shit competition. Less January fixtures for us. More for Spurs and Chelsea. I’m OK with this. Yes, I’d rather have won, but this loss is not without it’s benefits.
Agreed Tbh, it was disappointing but I’m not worried about us when we get players back from injury. Big job for Sven and Raul in January too, I think we need a “Torreira” out wide or in defence.
Agreed^2. We weren’t outplayed or ‘spineless’, they took their chances we didn’t.
Possession or tame shots never win games, I believe years of wengerball showed us just that…
I agree, it felt like watching an old tape but with a new manager. I like our pressing tough…
Tame shots? We had great chances to win the game, it wasn’t like sterile possession on the edge of the area
Now let’s get some defenders back and get Xhaka back into the midfield, please!
I want Xhakeira back!
In a game like this, where losing isn’t the end of the world, why not play a young CB and give him some experience?
If you’re gonna play Xhaka anyway, leave him in midfield.
Exactly! I thought we were about giving chances to young players. Maybe Julio pleguezuelo or zech medley could have done a better job than Granit at the back. I think this is one that the boss missed.
Maybe, but it’s also a real baptism of a fire for a young defender. He’s played them in Europa league games because it’s a good introduction to senior football and they can gain experience in that environment. They could play well, but they could also get torn to pieces by Kane and Son and their confidence take a huge hit they struggle to recover from for a while. If he’d played medley and we got thrashed we’d be saying it was irresponsible and medleys confidence would be on the floor.
It’s idiotic playing Xhaka in central defence.
Yeah guys, this is the same xhaka that’s needed a full on dm in torreria to hold his hand or he will lose us possession. (still managed 2 passes to opposition players)
I hear it was a tactical decision to play Xhaka there…
Maybe emery is thinking playing him at cb will improve him defensively. A midfield xhaka with better defensive awareness will make our midfield a bit stronger.
No, that’s not what he was thinking…
You just can’t miss chances like that at this level…
Not too disappointed to be out of this though. Given our injuries, I’m happy to get healthy and take as many points in the league as possible. We could do with two fewer matches in January. This competition would be better suited if it were exclusively for the Championship and lower leagues.
Bring back Özil!
Ozil and Laca is a top combination – they must start on Sunday. Auba needs a rest.
I think emery is showing a massive weakness in attempting to show strength. How you could play micki iwobi or Ramsey ahead of Ozil is unbelievable. To then say it’s tactical is an insult. I have lost some of respect I had for emery.
at this moment in time, you have to say that, micki, iwobi, are better than ozil, and ramsey has always been better than ozil
Who says he’s trying to show strength? He’s not a mourinho like manager who makes examples of players to make a point. There’s clearly more to it.
Mkhi, Iwobi and Ramsey are better for what Emery wants. Emery has never said that Ozil isn’t a class player.
Why??? His performances have been stinking the place out for a very long time.
Nooo, we want GOOD players, not lame ducks
I really think Emery’s dropped the ball recently. Seems to be scratching around for a formula while all he seems to trust is Guendouzi. The players looked worryingly clueless in the second half today.
he was not to blame for the concerned goals nor the missed opportunities, he wasnt best on the pitch but far from the worst
His booking aside, I thought Guendouzi was one of the better players last night. I thought he tried some genuinely brave passes and got around the pitch whilst most of the others were afraid to take responsibility.
A new manager who’s still learning about his players, is dropping the ball by trying to learn about his players?
Come back to the real world, It took Guardiola who took over a much stronger group a season to get his house in order, it took both Klopp and Pochettinho a few seasons.
We’ve lost two games…. one of them which whilst painful, could in the cold light of day, prove to be a blessing.
Anyone who thinks Ozil deserves a starting spot based on his form since last February? Clearly isn’t paying attention.
I think the ain problem is that, he has not really fully looked into what works for him or not. When you have players who have performed a certain way previously, you should decide whether their attributes are needed or not. Elneny has not seen the light of day as an Arsenal player and yet Ozil gets some games, pulls up better stats than Iwobi and Mkhi combined, then gets dropped. If he was not a fit for Emery, he should have treated him like he has Elneny. If he was trying to fit him in, why has he now… Read more »
he hasn,t got any players, what do you expect him to do
Dropped the ball how? We’ve struggled during an injury crisis at the back, what a surprise.
Granted I’m on holiday in the us with different time zones, but i genuinely forgot this game was even being played until I checked on arseblog for some daily news. That’s how much I care about this shit cup. And guess what? It’s never nice to lose to that lot, but I still couldn’t give less of a shit if I tried. Spurs fans can crow when they beat us at something that matters, or better still…when they win something.
The spirit of Arsene Wenger lives on. Take that haters.
Emery is dead right about us not being clinical enough up front, but it looks like he’s got a huge blind spot about our defending. As we’ve been brutally taught over and over again this season, there’s no point in scoring goals unless you keep them out at the other end. We have by far the worst defensive record of the top six teams right now (and I’m not including Man U). When Emery first came to Arsenal I said that my big worry about him was his defensive record. It looks like my concerns were justified. At Sevilla his… Read more »
Emery isnt as critical as he needs to be on his conferences but doesn’t mean he’s blind to it, we’ve been soft on marking forwards in recent weeks mostly due to injuries fitness and likes of Xhaka Lichtensteiner covering a position that needs most experience in, BUT anything is better that post-Highbury-Wenger nightmare. future does look brighter than it used to
The game has moved on a lot since the days of George. As much as I loved the fella and the kind of defending his teams displayed, i’m really not sure that he would be successful with his style of play today. Clearly part of the brief given to Emery is to continue to play entertaining football and i’m just not sure that you can play good football and be massively efficient defensively. The 91 team was the closest George got to great football and great defence, but it still wasn’t ‘that’ exciting. Also, Tony Adams-type defenders are one in… Read more »
Gus Caesar, your 2nd paragraph is the most sensible post on here in a long time.
Cheers Kwame (what a player you were!) – I blame it on the sugar in the mince pies i’ve already eaten today – my regular service of stupidity back after Xmas.
Why didn’t we play Emery as CB? If I’m not mistaken, Wenger has played him there before
Has Arsenal ever had a player / manager?
I’m assuming you meant Mo Elneny?
Oh God! Yes, ELNENNNNNNYYYYY!!!!!!!
For Emery – losing is also tactical.
come on – you might not like to play Ozil- it is ok but not to include him against Spurs -:ridiculous
Anyway – just sell him if he is not up to your liking / std.
this team lacks a tiny trickster so bad, with Wenger letting go of all we had in Walcott AOC Gnabry Alexis in his final season, it’s rather odd we haven’t brought at least one in.
Didn’t understand why we had to play sucha strong XI in such a shit competition. Probably Emery is respecting the NLD too much. Poor game management.
We either need to buy a center back or get our acadamy coach back in the Jersey asap. It’s only been 6 months! Bring back the sack!
Spot on. The key difference is they took their chances and we wasted ours. First half, we had more shots on goal and created more chances but we conspired not o finish ours. Iwobi responsible for at least two gilt edge chances. But the front men, Aubameyang in particular don’t deserve to be called “world class” if they don’t put away these sort of opportunities. Still feel there is room for one more attacking asset. Nketiah looked wet behind the ears tonight against Danny Rose. Mhkitaryan’s effort was the most tame. He did alright tonight overall with plenty of turn… Read more »
In the second half Arsenal missed creativity, 3 strikers up front (Auba, Laca, Nketiah) they are goal scorers not creaters, so in second half we missed that creativity to score goals. Iwobi should have been played for full 90 minutes, he creates chances and help the defense well. The only problem with Iwobi is he loses the ball too often.
But we had Ramsey to create ??
We always still try and walk the ball in the net, take your chances at any angle boys, and tighten up at the back!!!
It’s wrong to brush this off as a game of no consequence. There was clearly a gap in quality between the two teams. Our “Ill overlap you overlap everybody do the overlap” attacking strategy is so bait and one dimensional, Im so tired of seeing Iwobi getting marshalled into the corner flag before getting dumped on his arse, or auba doing one of his his no look crosses into the keepers arms. There is a problem with efficiency, but in the absence of ozil there’s also an real lack of attacking imagination. We need to spend to keep pace, we… Read more »
And yet we have very little money. So it’s going to take some time.
Koscielny again lost track of his man for the 2-0 goal, just as he did against Southampton. I know, I know, he just got back from a major injury and lacks “match fitness”, but come on! He’s 33, has played at top level and been awesome for years – you don’t just forgot how to do basic defending ’cause you’ve been out of the game for 6 months. We only missed Bellerin and Mustafi in defence today and they’ve been criticized for most of the season for being liabilities at the back. So if Kosc and Monreal being back in… Read more »
This is a brilliant manager……..squad is small.
He has to position people out of position to manage the defensive situation.
Lichsteiner: LB/RB/CB
AMN: RB/LB
Monreal: CB/LB
Xhaka: LB/CB/DM
Bellerin: LB/RB
Then there’s a back 4 , followed by a back 5.
I’m seriously getting dizzy!
Man doesn’t have a lot of choice so I’m not for blaming.
We’re top 6 this year, with a serious chance of lifting the Europa league.
But the signs into the future are very good.
Not too fussed. He’s right, overall the difference between the two sides was composure.
We can do without the two semi final games against Chelsea for sure, though maybe we’d think differently if we’d drawn burton
Aubameyang with yet another vanishing act. I don’t understand how someone so prolific in front of goal can have such poor performances. For every great goal he gets, he seems to miss about 3 far easier chances. Baffling.
As for Mhiki, his confidence was low anyway but after his dreadful miss and general performance, it’s probably shot to pieces now…
Auba has always been like that, he gets in to a lot of scoring positions, he’s never been a one chance one goal guy