Unai Emery praised his side’s attitude as Arsenal beat Huddersfield 2-1 although he admits his side didn’t control the game the way he’d have liked.
Goals from Alex Iwobi and Alex Lacazette put the Gunners in charge at the break but the way the Premier League’s bottom side dominated possession in the second half, created more chances and eventually reduced the deficit, albeit late in the game, was a concern.
While the performance was far from pretty, Emery was pleased that his side ended a six-game winless streak away from home, dating back to November.
“It was a good victory and very good work today,” the Spaniard told the BBC. “We said before the match we have to run like they are going to run because they needed these three points.
“First we had to bring the attitude to struggle in the 90 minutes and after we wanted to control the match with possession. We didn’t take the possession in the 90 minutes but they conceded in the transitions because they pushed a lot with the high press. We found moments in the match to make the difference.
“Today, I think our work was very good and it breaks our away record because we didn’t win away from home in a long time. Our way is continuing and we are closer to the top four.”
Arsenal were 30 seconds away from securing their first clean sheet away from home before Sead Kolasinac put through his own net. While another defensive blip proved frustrating, Emery made clear that victory was all that mattered.
He added: “A clean sheet is another thing we want before every match but we spoke about a lot of things about the match and the win is the first thing, we just had to score one goal more than them.
“The attitude is great from everybody. We had to struggle for 90 minutes because we knew they’d push and they pushed. When we had our chances to be calm and finish our chances, maybe we can do better but it’s good work today, in all situations offensively and defensively.”
I like Unai. I don’t understand why the fans are turning against him slowly. Its his first season and he has delivered some good wins, Tottenham, Chelsea went on a long unbeaten run, till Holding’s injury.
He is trying to do the best with the mess Wenger left behind and one of his players is already playing like a champion – Torriera.
Give him the space he needs to fix the defense. Back off ppl.
I agree that he is being treated unfairly by some of our toxic supporters but I still cannot see that Wenger left a mess behind. A lot of the problems have been caused by injuries. Bellerin, Holding, Koscielny, Monreal, Kolasanic, Xhaka, Ozil, Ramsey, Aubameyang and Lacazette is not the worst squad in the world
Finally someone with common sense.
It really drives me mad seeing all that negativity towards Unai.
To me, he’s doing a very good job with the players he has available. If someone told me at the start of the season we’ll be fighting for the 4th place in February, I’d be happy out.
Of course there’s decisions we might all disagree with Emery, but let the man do his job!
I think the thing under wenger that can’t be dismissed is the soft mentality he allowed, we collapsed early in so many important games with 2 or 3 different teams that you can only look at the manager for that
Personally I believe he left an unbalanced team and am happy with the progress of Emery, the unbeaten run aside I think we are where I expected us to be, with some exciting new talent bedding in
Collapsed early under Emery too. 3-1 loss to City, and 5-1 to Liverpool. So, basically, there hasn’t been too much difference, but we do have to understand that the injuries to our defensive players have been devastating. Bellerin, Holding, Koscielny, Sokratis, Mustafi, all out for injuries at one time or another. Once our defense is healthy next year, then we should get a better idea of Emery as a coach.
Synopsis of said mess can be split into two broad categories: Player acquisition: We smashed our transfer record on a player that was never a necessity. We desperately required a striker, should have got Higuain, made ourselves a laughing stock because of Luis Suarez, and instead brought in an assist machine in Mesut. Our biggest transfer window has largely been a total waste of money. We brought in Mustafi, Xhaka, and Perez. The fact is if we could have all that money back or all 3 players, almost all supporters would be unilateral in asking for refunds. To rectify issue… Read more »
I don.t think you go far enough! Squad and finamces are a shambles of Wenger/Gazidis making. Would have liked to see much bigger surgery in the summer but can understand why it didn.t happen. Hopefully now UE has had a chance to assess the players we will see that surgery this summer
You need a longer post to fully extol the issues we are facing and it wasn’t just a case of Wenger buying poorly or Mustafi costing us the season.
These are silly reasons some prefer to conveniently use without fully understanding the causes that have led to the predicament we are in.
Santori length is but a synopsis of what is happening.
But we live in a world of convenient tweet length explanations alas.
People prefer not to confront the real issues instead fall back on comfortable red herrings.
Sorry Martin but definitely a mess. You can’t just throw out names like that. Go through the squad Arsène left from goalkeeper out & it was a mess. Not strong enough & unbalanced. Not to mention mentally weak & lacking in real leadership. 13 points outside the top 4 does not tell a lie.
You can love Arsène & still accept that he just stayed on too long and made his successors job way harder than it would have been if he had left 2, 3 or 4 years earlier.
I think it’s fair to say he left a good attack but our away record last season does suggest he didn’t exactly leave a good defence… all honesty I think Bellerin is the only player from last seasons 4 worth keeping. Maybe kos, but age is catching up to him and I doubt he will chose to stay beyond this season. Mustafi needs shipping and monreal looks past it now too. I think theres actually too much focus on the manager at the moment and not enough on the players. We keep talking about getting more out of them but… Read more »
Wenger did one major mistake, being so eager to prove a point that he allowed Özil the 350k/w. Ozil is not the 1st overpaid impossible to offload player we have had, but this one is so extreme it kills our new managers possibilities to recruit players we actually need. This error doesn’t define AWs career, But blowing away our wage structure in his final year in my eyes dents the legacy of “always respecting our values”, repeatedly expressed when loosing more important players in earlier years
Conveniently, when it is, its Wenger’s fault.
That decision was made when Mslintat and Raul had a ready wrestled control of market proceedings off of Wenger.
You’re pissing into the wind… A large section of our fan base are completely demented. I was expecting us to finish 6th this season, I still think that’s where we’ll likely finish, but I certainly didn’t think Emery in?/ Emery out? Would become an actual “Thing” for at least 18 months…. The problem Emery has got now is that the players can’t possibly feel that the fans are on board with them, and that makes things even more difficult. United simply have a better squad of players, and they also have the fans now back on board with the players,… Read more »
“his player”…hilarious …”the mess wenger left behind” ….we needed a change, thats for sure. but it disgusts me how people talk about wenger. ungrateful fuckers!! now get off my backyard or im calling the cops!
So Torreira is good thanks to Emery. He was good before Arsenal, too (ask Samp supporters). If you want to give Emery credit, go ahead, but if your only argument is Torreira, I’d say I’d need a little bit more convincing. Why is it always that people want to fully credit/blame manages for the personal achievements/failures of players?
Bellerin, Holding, Laca, Kola, Guendouzi, Iwobi, Xhaka…. all have notably improved under Emery. Unfortunately injuries denied us the stability.
I’m quite shocked at the ‘thumbs down’ you got Red-Sky.
Each one of these players seriously improved this season, I’m assuming some people have short memory?
I can only see more positives coming once they all get well organised & Unai gets to bring his own additions to the squad.
You must have a very short memory. Remember last season under Wenger when Arsenal were 10 points behind 4th place (11 Feb, 2018).
At the same point Arsenal are only 1 point behind.
You want to live in denial go ahead, but Unai has done wonders with what he has at his disposal.
Wonders? He’s done wonders!? Stop acting like your club is chopped liver and that Emery is a Michelin star chef who’s turned it into sous vide parfait. His handling of Ozil is a complete shambles. Take an already underappreciated, overscutinised player and vilify him further. A great manager would lift the whole team to greatness. What about Ramsey? He’s Arsenal through and through. How do you just stop all contract talks and let him walk? It’s a disgrace. Wenger was a wonderful manager and the people blaming him for all our failures only point to their lack of intelligence.
@ashavin I take it you haven’t watched Arsenal the past few years. The past few years under Wenger we were a team with no discernable style, a shambles of a defense and collapsed every time the pressure was on. We also were one of the worst run clubs in terms of letting players run down contracts, overpaying players (Ozil is one of the 10 highest paid players in all of Europe) & selling players for virtually nothing/free. Wenger did a lot of great things for this club and should be appreciated, but let’s not pretend like he left Emery the… Read more »
@atom…I have watched almost every game for the last 10 years. It’s this season that I’m finding it tough to watch. I don’t like Emery’s treatment of the players that we’re not only paying big money to, but that we should rely on to create chances. Teenager Guendouzi and Iwobi our biggest threats? That’s what feels off. How can he have a good system where he makes our arguably most important players sit on the bench. He’s not looking like a genius does he when we’re not winning games? Not playing well offensively, not playing defense well, not winning games… Read more »
I wouldn’t say we got “unlucky” against Atletico. We had them down to 10 men virtually the entire first game and still allowed one of our trademark sloppy goals. From that point on the tie was over – they were a much better team and we never were going to beat them in Madrid. The Ozil thing I really don’t have a problem with even if it’s a lot more contentious. Ozil hasn’t been consistently playing at a world class level for awhile now (he’s capable of it but doesn’t consistently do it). I would assume there’s also stuff going… Read more »
Torreira had some shockers.
Against BHA, Soton and Liverpool he lost the ball in midfield 5 plus times either with misplaced passes or having the ball stolen off of him.
Had it been Granit there would have been the usual uproar.
And 3 of those occasions led directly to goals against us.
We dropped 8 points in those games two of which were very winnable.
But apparently Mustafi cost us the season.
The mess Wenger left behind? Wenger had a weaker squad than him. No proper DM in Torreira, no Sokratis, and Giroud instead of Aubameyang up until half a season before he left. He had Sanchez though, but I think we did some decent transfer business to fill his void last january.
I love arsenal but objectively we by far have the weakest squad in the top 6. Only aba would be guaranteed to start for any of the other top 6 and he wouldn’t at sp@rs
Wenger had a better squad untill his last season.
Sanchez , Ozil at his best, Cazorla, Ox, Walcott, Per…. etc
And more importantly much less injuries than now.
Honestly it’s a ridiculous comparison.
Arsenal is worse in every possible position except center-forward where we have 2 strikers. [ we should play one and bench the other for a more flowing game ]
Sokratis isn’t that good a defender. Torreira was PISS POOR against BHA, Soton and Liverpool, west Ham even 5 giveaways or balls robbed of him 3 of which led directly to goals. That was at least 8 points lost. Giroud scored us goals for 12m. Wenger bought well. Whether he bought enough or skimped on defense was an issue. BUT Mslintat and Raul have not been that great. Last January we could have bought Mahrez but brought in Mhkitaryan instead. In the summer we did not do the business to get a really good Cback instead going for low hanging… Read more »
What a ridiculous argument. Wenger had a weak squad… that he built. Emery has a slightly better squad but largely composed of the the weak squad that Wenger built. Acting like Wenger was made to suffer with his own purchases and emery has a great squad is hilarious
Well, i think all fans, self included, were supportive, at the beginning bcos its the beginning of a new era and you could see what he was trying to do….fast forward to now..some fans, lots, and its growing, are less supportive, again self included, bcos we cant see what he is trying to do anymore, and the football is downright ugly, win or lose. Players seem to be caught between different playing philosophies, probably hence the ongoing frequently misplaced passes, formations and personnel are frequently chopped and changed that it must be confusing to whoever is picked, and he has… Read more »
Sheikhs have backed Pep’s vision with sacks full of millions, they’ve spent over 200mil just on the defnese. While Kroenke’s are happy to borrow like Arsenal are some sort of Mickey mouse club from league 2 or something..
Wenger never leave any mess..He left a great team which any coach could have built it easy…Wenger knew when and how to play his best players and this is the difference between the two man….
Jesus wept
If only we could keep the concentration at the back for the whole game we might have a chance for 4th. However the last 10 mins were poor and we looked tired.
Emery has more points than Klopp and poch at the same stage of his career
Hey Pradeep, that doesn’t fit the narrative of the Arsenal ‘fans’ that want him gone.
True and sad
So what. The football is horrible, at least they knew what they were moving towards, this is just a shambles. Sitting deep against Huddersfield, cowardly negative tactics, chopping and changing all the time, no rhythm, no flow, boring, fucking boring Arsenal.
That assumes a man city like spending spree is coming next. Without that he has to out perform pep just to make it to the top 4 every year.
We had to struggle for 90 minutes, at least he realises that. He doesn’t seem to realise any other obvious things, however. Defend and counterattack. Arsenal. Against Huddersfield, last in the league. Let that sink in. Defend, let them dominate possession, counterattack, struggle throughout the game. Great attitude, he says. OK. He seems happy. Some fans seem happy, too. Good for them, everyone’s entitled to their own opinion.
He’s sounding exactly like Wenger.
Maybe he is getting the team to practice defending/counterattacking in a real life scenario rather than on the training ground.
Surely being 2 nil up against the worst attack in the league is the best time to do it.
Perhaps it is a good time to practice some defensive tactics.
But I’d sure prefer practicing putting the sword to a bottom of the table team that spent its time kicking and stamping on us. We need our attacking confidence back.
‘He doesn’t seem to realise any other obvious things, however. ‘
so ummm yeah, you think just because he only focused on positive points in a public interview, it means he must not realize what’s going on on his team??
Keep it up.
Look at the players available and our away record. Kolasinac can’t defend, Ainsley can’t defend and our back 3 has one competent centre back in it. These are the sorts of games we lost last season if you can remember? It seems like people think emery took over the 2004 Arsenal’s side and turned it in to shit. We are Shit, a lot of our players are shit. We have not “earned the right to play” away at Huddersfield and right now hard work, graft and applying ourselves defensively is a necessity.
What was shite was midfield. NO CONTROl.
Sure Kolasinac and AMN make mistakes but they also recover very quickly and they were KEY to our attack today coming down the flanks.
Do you even watch the match or are you looking out for what you wish to see?
We are shite today bc midfield was poor. And we had little assets to throw on in terms of quality.
Elneny was a waste of space.
What I find baffling is the fact that Ozil is in the top 10 highest earners in the world, only trumped by Sanchez in terms of premier League earners. There’s no Liverpool players, no Ch*ski players, and no Citeh players. We have him in the top 10 highest earners, yet we hardly play him!!!! Additionally, we had a chance to offload Mustafi 2 seasons ago, to Inter. We rejected their bid. Also we are letting the likes of Ramsey go for free, and not making a dime out of Welbeck’s potential departure. This club is a f****** shambles. Even though… Read more »
Kroenke’s biggest flaw as an owner is simply he doesn’t care and allowed Wenger and gazidas to get things to this point. By all accounts he allowed them to run everything so it’s wishful thinking to claim Wenger is absolved of blame. We spent a lot of money as a club – our wage bill has always been in the top 2-3- we just spent a ton on squad players. While Wenger’s desire to promote youth was admirable, we also failed to bring in real competition for them which ended up costing us as players like jack or Jenkinson didn’t… Read more »
If you’re an owner of a club and letting Wenger and Gazidis make those decisions for years, unchecked, you’re at fault as much as them
Before we off load Mustafi there are FAR more useless players in the squad we can’t even offload.
Elneny, Jekninson still lurking around.
Mslintat then added (rather unnecessarily) Lichsteiner putting more pressure on wage bill.
Mustafi is one of our better defenders (not saying much of course), why would we off load him?
Chambers and holding were not convincing last season either.
Koscielny aging.
Would make ABSOLUTELY no sense to sell Mustafi then.
Absurd.
Really? I thought we were hopeless and need a kick up the arse not hollow praise.
I’m actually losing my mind with this fan base at the minute. Do you think we played good football away from home last season? No, it was turgid. No Ramsey, no Ozil, no Xhaka, no auba, no Sokratis, no holding and no Bellerin. Look what’s happened to Liverpool with a couple of key injuries, and spurs without Kane and Alli are not the same side. It feels like people have the rose tinted glasses on and think we’ve gone from wengerball to this but in reality we’ve been an increasingly poor footballing side for years and our away record last… Read more »
The defence is still not good enough ,conceding a late goal and unable to keep a clean sheet. Its well known if you want to win games 1st and trophies 2nd,you have to have a solid defence. Defence can win games not the attack. If the latter is stifled,that’s it. I don’t know maybe Emery is planning to win the Europa to get back to the cl. Even then as records have shown the gunners are the whipping boys of the top teams in the cl.The cl juts serves to fill the coffers of the US owner who aint prepared… Read more »
They should have kept concentration to the end but the fault lies in the midfield.
We lack control today.
We should be keeping possession but we were poor all game.
Torreira- Guendouzi struggled. NO surprise Torreira was hauled off.
BUT we did no better throwing headless chicken Elneny, new boy Dennis and young Willock on.
If you put ANY defense under that sort of persistent duress, there will always be a chance that something will give even against the likes of Huddersfield.
Sorry bit tired and carnt concentrate. Are we slating the manger, players or just the club in general?
ahh u missed the memo…here u go
ALL
We got a shit team with shit quality and virus(Pogba) in the team said ***rinho. Now OGS just turn their shit side to play good football and Virus got most goal and assist for Manure.
Say we got a shit team player with shit quality compare to Huddlefield side is a joke.Our perfermance is just on a shit-tier. Only different is it just that their striker is worse compare to our side. The only positive is that we got away with 3 point with shitty performance.
A bit of a snatch and grab.
Could have been more comfortable if we put away the third.
But our midfield largely overrun today and lacking enough control.
The only worry i have with this Arsenal is the type of player we keep getting linked with, Benaga, Nzonzi, nkunku, perisic, the other Belgian dude in china and eventually pushing for a fringe player (whose value i do not see us needing esp with the youth we have). I worry what we will look like after 3 transfer windows as a europa club trying its best to offload Ozil and replace him with benega, having told rambo to fuck off for free.
It must be allowed to feel a concern of Emerys approach to the games. We are still a great club, but are managed as a small one which need to play tactics against relegation teams in order to secure three points. The difference to ManU is huge, the magic of Solskjaer is simply telling the players that «we’re United,they shall fear us, not the other way around». Emery threats each opponents as top notch clubs, which they seldom are.
When you won one away game the previous season nobody is going to fear you. We have to earn the right to play again and that means basics. Champagne football can wait, frankly.
If we struggled against Huddersfield and Cardiff, I won’t get my hopes up in UEL either.
As I think we all agree, Emery needs time to fashion the team into his own image, but I don’t think that means he shouldn’t be pressured into ensuring that the image is one we agree with: i.e., a stylish attacking side with more grit and determination than the previous administration was able to deliver in the end. Blogs articulated all of this so well this morning, and though we all agree that 3 points is the most important thing to to take away from the game, that view fails to take into account the fact that big clubs with… Read more »
I agree with most of what you say here, and I think he did have all the players buying into his new philosophy, but I think he’s losing them. The ongoing saga with Mesut, who is reportedly a popular player with the team, the fact that our forwards get little or no service and are basically playing as midfielders most of the time lately, and the negative setups and tactics are now concerning a lot of fans and must surely be concerning players too. Arsenal is known for playing good flowing football, the reason that Arsene had to leave was… Read more »
5th place, more way wins and points than last year with injuries that make our squad look like a battle field and people are having a pop at our new manager?? I have no words….COYG!
Does 6 – 0 put our performance at Citeh into perspective?
blaming Unai for us not being top of the league is…. I don’t find the words, help me pls…. yes excactly; like declaring yourself zero into football, and much less into arsenal