Unai Emery was very pleased with his side’s performance as Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-0 to move into fourth place in the Premier League just one point behind Sp*rs.
Granit Xhaka’s swerving long-range effort deceived David De Gea to open the scoring on 12 minutes and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang converted a penalty, awarded for a Fred foul on Alex Lacazette, with 20 minutes remaining.
Here’s what he had to say to the BBC…
On the win…
I’m very proud of our players. They gave all they could against the best team at this moment. We were playing very competitive for 90 minutes and I think we deserved this victory. We can be happy today.
On the atmosphere…
I’m very proud of our supporters, they pushed us a lot and this is a big result and they created a big atmosphere for our players.
On United…
They [United] were in a good moment after one result against PSG but we had a big performance and we are in a good moment in the Premier League. To take three points and get a good position for our target is very good and I’m happy for the players.
On Bernd Leno…
Our goalkeeper is very important and sometimes the goalkeeper can save us and today I’m very proud of his work.
On his tactics…
We can use different systems and different players and today we changed the system, after two matches away. For us it is very important that every supporter helps like they did today.
On what’s next for his side…
Being competitive like today for 90 minutes can give us a stronger mentality. We are going to think of the next Premier League match, against Newcastle here but that is in three weeks and now our focus is the Europa League on Thursday.
That is a very important match after what happened away (losing 3-1 to Rennes in the first leg). I hope a lot of supporters come here and make the stadium full to create this atmosphere.
And Gary Neville is a twat.
At least he is an unhappy twat
Ah, it feels so good to hate Man U (and everyone associated with them) again.
You should be proud. Leno was amazing today!
Lets take this momentum to Thursday, get a good result, and move to the quarter finals.
I want us to go for 3rd now not 4th. Man U and Spuds are in the CL QFs so 4th place might not get it if (don’t laugh) either of them win the CL and finish 5th and 6th.
Believe they changed the rules after Chelsea won it and screwed the banter club.
4th would see us into CL.
4th wouldn’t see us into the CL if an English club wins the Champions League and Chelsea wins Europa.
Lets just finish 3rd and win Europa. Problem solved.
So so so hope we pip spurs to 3rd and chelsea do it hahah
so 4th is enough then…
Only if the English club that wins the CL finishes outside the top 4. That’s a lot of ifs. In any case, there’s no way in hell that either of them are going to win the CL.
Emery is a class act and he’s pulling up trees , the club really need to back him this summer.
We’ve got mostly an honest group of players who are working hard for our manager, we clearly lack quality in certain areas, but I think Emery is getting the maximum from this group, and we’ve certainly seen improvements from a fair few players this season.
He needs time to work, and I think he needs at least 2 seasons to really get his house in order, but I’m convinced we’ve got the right guy to take this project forward
Over the moon about the result. But we can’t ignore that United almost got in front with Lukaku (we were extremely lucky) and that they looked threatening in the beginning of the second (Leno saved us from a certain equaliser) until we put the game to rest thanks to a penalty that was, to be fair, a bit soft (just like the penalties that we usually concede on our end, so no complaints there of course!). All in all a well deserved win also taking into account what happened last week.
Well if we can do Man U two nil at the fortress then Rennes should be no problem. Glass brimming over….:-)
Bernd Leno is on fire of late.
And we’re proud of you Boss!
What a goalkeeper Leno is turning out to be. Have never forgiven the sale of Szezney but this guy is starting to change my opinion.
So am I Unai, very, very proud ?
The gunners didn’t let any of the MU danger men isolated or had a 3 men wall
around these guys.Rashford and company seldom had the luxury of time
and space.
Hopefully the gunners will know that to win games they have to play at
high intensity and everyone must row the boat and put bodies in the way.
I’m very proud of you Unai. Just gotta get better at playing away from home and we could be a force again.
Fantastic win. Excellent effort all round even if many times we again rode our luck. With or without Mustafi, its the same. This time though no one got sent off on our end rather the Ref delivered us the softest of penalties in our favour. What goes around comes around as they say. Very nervy to see Auba stepping up, his conversion rate at 50% but kudos to him for having the bollocks and dispatching it even if it was still rather tame and down the middle. A superb all round effort today but MOTM is Granit for me. All… Read more »
What makes me happy is that unai change of tactics unlike Wenger,the previous manager whether he is playing against man United or the lowest team same tactics ….but Unai change based on the team he is playing against
I was saying the same thing. Actual strategy being changed and implemented, before games and during games. Obviously when you do that you can get uneven performances but this club has some young, every day squad players and coming off Wenger Ball for most of the squad, this season had to have been tough. Credit to the boss and his staff for obviously implementing a new style and work routine, while obviously keeping everyone in good spirits and team camaraderie high.
before the Tottenham game I’d have taken four points from these two games. In reality six were there for us but for the two penalties last weekend.
But still, we’re now in control of top four