Unai Emery says his players shouldn’t feel burdened by the must-win nature of their remaining games insisting they should harness the pressure to prepare as best they can for the upcoming tests.
It’s no secret that the next six days will go a long way to defining Arsenal’s season with league encounters against Watford and Crystal Palace sandwiching a trip to Napoli.
Victories on the domestic front and the avoidance of a two-goal defeat in Italy will ensure we continue fighting for Champions League qualification on two fronts, defeats, on the other hand, could make life very difficult in the final month of the campaign.
“I think that, here, every player has the habits to play under pressure,” Emery told Arsenal.com ahead of Monday’s trip to Vicarage Road.
“For me, playing under pressure is our demand to prepare the best we possibly can for each match, and not feel a negative issue with playing under pressure.
“And [manage] the feeling that we are playing with a big demand on ourselves to do something important.
“Our habit is to play against the best teams in the best moments in the key matches.
“We are going to play like that against the big teams, against the teams for us in the Premier League, which are very important matches because those teams are going to fight hard against us.
“Our demand is to prepare as best as possible for each match.”
Here’s hoping our lads can demonstrate the necessary ‘cojones’ this week…or ‘balls’ as they say in Spain.
All sounds good on the face of it, so why is our away record so poor?
I have a theory.
A lot of the lads forget to get their permission slips filled out by their parents / guardians and as a result, are forced to forge their mums signiture. However Emery has become wise to this and rings around the parents to ensure they all received and signed the form. On discovering that the forms are indeed comprised, Emery allows them to play but only if they stay very, very quiet for the entire game so they don’t get rumbled by uefa.
I didn’t say it was a good theory…
*compromised
Patrice Evra’s men against children theory being revived.
‘Pressure Creates Diamonds’ the number one best seller by Unai Emery
The sweetest reward for beating Watford would be to hear the away fans sing “Deeney, Deeney, what’s the score?”
Have to admit, I like troy Deeney
Is it because of his cojones? ?
I, on the other hand, can’t stand the fat fucker.
I feel really nervous about tonights game. Hoping for an early goal in the form of a Kolasinac power cutback ricocheting off Troy Deeney cojones and into his own net.. to settle the nerves
? brilliant ?
Usually when a rival close to us has slipped up, we never capitalise… so with Chelsea losing yesterday, it would be great if we could pick up 3 points tonight.. even if it is in that vile kit ????
Why am I more worried tonight than I was before the spurs game? Oh yeah they’re shit coyg.
Vile is the word. My heart sinks when I see the team walk out wearing that pastel/snot green kit. I associate it with weak and dreary performances. Much like the jersy design really.
I’m praying that we will be in the red or purple kit (which isn’t much better) tonight.
Hurry up Adidas with your wonderful bruised banana’s ?
Mine sinks too…. and it also did when I saw they’d be wearing it tonight ?
Simple equations … win all our remaining matches and we qualify for the Champions’ League … Twice!
Win all our remaining matches and we consign two of Sp*rs, Chelsea, and Manchester United to the Europa Cup … probably.
Well, pressure is what you make of it. The problem we have is that the players haven’t handled it at all well away from The Emirates. We all know the stats – and they’re terrible for a “top 6” club. Not only haven’t we won an away game since November, but we’re one of only two teams across four divisions with no clean sheets away from home this season. That’s just not good enough – and a particular worry given most of our remaining games are away. The evidence – results, the only bottom line – show that so far… Read more »
We have shown our ‘balls’ at home but sadly only one ball away. Time to dig deep and find that lost ball cos we’re gonna need them both to reach the promise land.
Agreed let’s not drop a bollock tonight. 🙂
I kinda liked what Troy Deeny said about us, and I think it gave us as fans a glimpse into the minds of the players. It was nice to not only see the team’s response to what he said in the home fixture, but it confirmed what a lot of fans had always thought and still think to this day. Yes, we are treated differently by referees and our style of play remains a problem even now, but the way we seem to crumble is a mentality thing rather than a footballing ability thing. We are not as confident, composed… Read more »
Mentality is a huge part of the game today. Keeping the confidence needed to succeed is a goal that few accomplish. So many times Arsenal have crumbled since 2006. Here’s me hoping that Emery will turn this around…
This is very true, and the difference between a top atlete and a gifted We lost this in AWs last decade, where we became the team that only performed as a reaction to bad results, basically when the pressure is gone. I say this because I have no doubt you can instill this as a manager, and emery has done a marvelous job instilling this mentality at least on home soil, which has taken us back into CL contention. This guy deserves many, many free rounds of beer! In fact he started his career in a region that is more… Read more »