Unai Emery was full of praise for his players’ defensive performance after Arsenal reignited their challenge for a Champions League place with a 2-0 win over Chelsea at the Emirates.
Alex Lacazette beat Kepa Arrizabalaga with a clinical near post strike to break the deadlock on 14 minutes before Laurent Koscielny’s shoulder doubled the lead six minutes before the break.
Chelsea piled on the pressure in the second half but the Gunners held firm to claim the win and their first clean sheet in the league since early December. The gap on the Blues, still in fourth, is now down to a palatable three points.
“I’m very pleased with this victory and these three points,” he told the BBC. “After our defeat at West Ham we needed to show our supporters a strong moment.
“I think we can improve. We can be optimistic in the future but we need to find a good balance between when we’re playing away and when we’re playing at home. We can be optimistic because we are closer to a lot of teams like Chelsea, Tottenham and Manchester United.
“I’m very happy with the last 20 minutes and how we defended against them. The first half made the difference with the result, but in the second half we showed how we can defend together.”
In his post-game press conference, the Spaniard added: “Every player worked first. This attitude, to be together when we are with the ball, to find the space and also find the moments for attacking.
“But today, above all when we have the ball. They had the ball for more than 60 per cent, we needed to recover the ball with good pressure and we worked a lot. We ran more than them. This team ran a lot.
“For the first idea today, we were speaking. We needed to run to recover the ball and transition very quickly. The first half, the first 30 minutes, we did that.
“Then, in the second half, it’s very difficult to keep this pressing against them for 90 minutes. The match, tactically, changed. We worked very well defensively in deep when we needed that in the match.
“The clean sheet today was very important. It showed our supporters we are here and can continue being optimistic in our way.”
Yes, also think that the, uhm, “isolated defensive actions,” such as interceptions, standing/sliding tackles etc., were on a great level tonight.
Still long way to go when it comes to us giving the ball away right after we win it though. Crazy how easily we sometimes let the opposition hold us under big pressure with the careless giveaways.
Hence Dennis Suarez. Carrasco
You gotta love a good shoulder!
Their keeper got the cold shoulder treatment from the boss.
Well done Unai, happy for you & the team. He did his homework well, A+ tactics for the opposition.
Still loads of work to do, but hopefully that loss against West Ham was a big wake up call. Let’s keep the momentum now & put ManU in their place.
Good win and performance, but the team isn’t ready for a real push for 4th spot. They won’t catch Chelsea and Utd will pass them.
Based on the way we played today I cannot see why not. If we can play to this level consistently we really stand a great chance of a top 4 place.
Im am 20 years arsenal hardcore fan , but this arsenal is the weakest in this 30yrs and have no leaders at all, miss invincible era henry berkamp lungberg pires lauren veira where all of them looks like leader and can bring the game back at anytime,thats we call the big gun
Perhaps you should just sit in your room and play tapes of the Invincibles over and over, it would probably give you more pleasure than watching the current Arsenal team. Or perhaps you might realize that for all their undoubted talent, those Arsenal players were far from perfect, also played some boring football and lost plenty of cup games, in between the highlights and men to gods nonsense. I’m actually sick of the Invincibles being used as a stick to beat the current team. It was nice to win the league unbeaten but it was a long time ago when… Read more »
Consistency, that’s what it all comes down to. This team is anything but that.
Problem is, that’s what I thought after we beat Tottenham, and see how that turned out!
You witness that Chelsea performance and don’t think they’re catchable?
What exactly is this Sarri-ball we keep hearing about? Did they even get a shot on net the entire game?
No actually
I was surprised at the way the defence went about the job of marking Hazard. The latter was not isolated o r on a one to one whom he would sent floundering on his butt.As a result the defnce held firm and a clean sheet.More of this ,please. Hopefully the guys will do the job against the rd. The rd have won 6/7 matches on the trot and this guy of run will inevitably have to grind to a stop.Why not the gunners end the run. Oh. By the way the ref for this game has to be 100% no… Read more »
Well, we gift you the most impartial of the lot, Mike freakin Dean.
Good luck son.
LOL, I am kidding.. I couldn’t be arsed to check who is officiating against those red Manchester cunts.
Collectively we were solid at the back even some individual errors that gave the possession away. But Pogba does that too once in a while.
Of course Emery is happy with the defence. Coz after Lacazette and Ramsey were substituted and later Elneny came in, attack was ZERO!!
it was just our players chasing chasing chasing while Chelsea has a big share of possession during that period. Coz outlet for attack is left with Auba, who usually doesnt do much alone. The link to quickly counter after we break their attack is missing coz that guy is on the bench.
Im unimpressed with this Emery’s approach. Attack is a very good form of defence.
Elneny made 2 great passes that unlocked the Defence in quick succession. He may not be world class or the hottie of the week but he busts his butt, is versatile and has great hair!
He’s limited but he offers energy and work rate.
Good enough for me bc we needed that.
If we are 2 nil up, I don’t mind these subs to give fresh legs in the last half hour.
Just enjoy the win. The subs were planned.
Great defending today. BUT it was the OVERALL defending which was most heartening. Unai employed a diamond 4 in midfield with Ramsey attacking their defenders high up. Plus the two strikers we had on their Cbacks really unsettled them. BUT the energy level and industry was also well sustained throughout. The 4 in midfield also shielded the backline well providing immediate cover every time one of their players were in front of our box. We had a man step up to close the gap and a second close by to prevent one twos. BUT critically, we also tracked their runners… Read more »
We won, which is a big positive and tactically, Emery set his side up to nullify the threat of the opposition. We took advantage of their weaknesses and performed really well against Chelsea. We have a good record against Chelsea in recent times, because Conte failed to beat Arsene at the Emirates or at a neutral venue. I see we are a team that is going to put on good performances against the top sides, because our most coherent and organized performances have come against the top sides. We seem to do well when playing against opposition that actually deserves… Read more »
A lot of false assumptions generalizations there. you seem to just have taken a look at our results vs lower teams without consideration to certain circumstances, including our severe decline for the past years. We struggle being protagonists vs lowest teams because we’re too concerned with ‘balance’ and our defensive record. When we play the likes of westham, it’s assumed we need to be able to win without an all-out intense performance. we can’t play like that all games for obvious reasons. But also note that we lack enough individual quality to control away games. Even with a possession based… Read more »
*we haven’t been so successful….
I think we underestimate our players sometimes. When looking at the league and looking into the overall value of our squad and the wages we pay, this squad is not as bad as people make it out to be. It would be very difficult to get players better than those at the club right now, with a limited budget and this self sustaining method we are on. I also think a lot of people are using last season as a definition of this squad’s quality, when last season was an anomaly. We are not that side, and context should come… Read more »
Devlin, sounds very much like what people were saying about Klopp’s his first 18 months at Liverpool.
For all his faults, using Mourinho’s time at Madrid is a bad example because he broke the Barca monopoly on La Liga, and he did it with Ronaldo and “you-know-who” playing attacking football for the most part. I also don’t know if we can say that Emery will always do well against the top sides after we were badly beaten by City and Liverpool in the league, drew to one of the worst United teams in memory and lost to Spurs in the cup. Chelsea are a good side but flawed in a way the top 2/3 aren’t at the… Read more »
Phillipe didn’t say emery was a “cup manager” he said he’s a very good manager but never going to be an orator like Wenger or have the personality of a Klopp. It’s a bit unfair to call him a cup manager, especially considering his Sevilla record
Chelsea didn’t have a shot on target. That says it all really
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/01/19/jose-mourinho-have-turned-three-job-offers-since-leaving-manchester/ Poignant points by Moanrinho. Rome wasn’t built in a day. People are already on the backs of Unai. They really need to take their heads out of their arse and get a reality check. City and Liverpool spent tons of money revamping their squads. In the case of Liverpool they have won nothing (as yet) for that money. Only this season more than 3 seasons in are they threatening to win a title again after over a quarter century. Don’t expect miracles from Emery. There will be limits in the current squad and the club does not have to… Read more »
Brilliant 2nd goal from our CB’s combining! That was some performance from them both! Sokratis has been a good buy imo
I never thought we’d get a clean sheet… so take a bow Arsenal… and please can we do it again on Friday
That was a really good performance from everyone, including the manager. I loved that we had a functioning midfield and that our players were hunting in packs, it was a far better set up by the coach, helped the defense, and hopefully we see more of it. So sorry for Hector, I was thinking in the first half how much he adds to our game.
We all know it wasn’t an easy defeat but we secured three points. Thanks to every player and Unai for that good work.And we pray that all players on injury should recover in time #Gunners
On behalf of Unai Emery I would like to extend a big “F*ck you” to all the so-called Arsenal fans that have asked for his head, six months into the job. Likewise on behalf of Matteo Guenduzi. You know who you are. Put your Arsene pyjamas on and go cry in your söup.
LÖL
Love it
Put your hand up if like me you thought we weren’t going to see this level from the boss again…?