Alex Lacazette says Arsenal didn’t just play badly against Everton in Sunday’s 1-0 defeat, the players actually failed to do what coach Unai Emery asked.
On the plus side, the France international maintains that confidence in the camp is still high as the Gunners prepare for their Europa League quarter-final first-leg clash with Italian side Napoli.
“On Sunday we played badly, all the team,” Lacazette told Wednesday’s pre-game press conference.
“We didn’t do what the coach asked us but we still have confidence. We know we’re still in the race for the Champions League in the Premier League, but we want to win trophies so we are confident.”
One of the reasons Lacazette is confident is the fact our home form has been very impressive this season; only Manchester City in the league and Sp*rs and Manchester United in the domestic cups have beaten us at the Emirates.
Knowing we’ll likely need to notch a decent win tomorrow to offset our inevitable piss poor performance in Naples, Lacazette said: “We know we are better at home than we are away, so tomorrow is really important for us.
“We also know we can get a good result away, so both games are going to be important for us.”
He went on to add: “At home we have the fans, so of course we feel more confident. Sometimes we want to do something but some days it’s not as we want, you can’t play as you want. That’s it.”
Jesus, I was biting my nails just reading this. What the hell am I gonna do when the match is on?
Interestingly one of the 2 players (Leno the other) who played ok makes the statement.
Nice if one of the real horrors stood up and said “I was rubbish”.
Hahahaha. Nerves
The question is did they do what the coach asked when we won games?
We have been poor away from home for a long time, There was a time were unbeaten away from home for over two years til Rooney scored that wonder goal, but since that we have failed to address the problems and unless we get in better defenders who actually know how to defend, this will continue, the likes of Mustafi and Elneny are dismal, but if Unai doesn’t address the problems we have in defending, we will have groundhog season again
Not a lot Emery can do on that area. Serious improvement is the province of Sanllehi and Empty Chair.
I don’t remember Mustafi being dismal.
Monreal was unaware postionally for the goal mainly.
Mustafi made one bad pass late in game. Many players (Guendouzi etc) fared far worse with distribution.
Mustafi also made some very critical clearances (Once to bail out Sokratis) plus he put in a great pass from deep to almost give Lacazette an opportunity.
Elneny was OK I thought. The problem with him is he doesn’t add extra further afield and the general awareness with space in relation to defensive line was lost between him and Guendouzi. He’s an average player trying his best.
Couldn’t agree more. I’ve seen Mustafi in all his games at The Emirates – unlike most of his supporters on this site, I suspect. Guess what, overall he’s VERY POOR, particularly for a 30 year old (read “experienced”) and certainly not worth anything like the £35 million we paid for him. If/when we sell him in the Summer – if we can – I don’t expect we’ll get half of that sum back … who would pay more on the evidence so far? The only good news is that Emery is aware of the team’s defensive shortcomings so, hopefully, that… Read more »
Mustafi is 26.
…until he’s 27
Stop
But before that he’s 26
The ‘BAD’ largely is our lack of creation up field. Everton had some opportunity late on as we lost structure chasing for the goal but our productivity creating opportunities was very poor. Also poor was efficiency in front of goal. As much as Laca and Auba have scored this season, we can do far better and they can improve. One thing I get annoyed with is when crosses are whipped in from the wide players or fullbacks, Laca (and Auba) still wait for the ball to come to them rather than move towards it, cut in front diagonally to shorten… Read more »
Wow … a statement of the bl**ding obvious there, Alex.“We didn’t do what the coach asked us … .” What an admission! “We also know we can get a good result away … .”, er, what, like against Bate or Rennes?? Let’s hope that they all start doing what they’re told very, very quickly, or we’ll be out of the top for good this season and out of the Europa League.
Did you really just redact the “E’s” from Bleeding? ?
Is there not an argument to say that a team who believe’s they are better at home than away will inevitably live up to those beliefs? Nothing much changes in literal terms besides the amount of fans backing you.
To put it another way, a lot of people are happy to take a dump at home, but are too scared to do it at the office. Sure it’s a different environment, but it doesn’t mean you’re any less capable of getting the job done.
Brilliant analogy and good point, aside from pitch sizes being slightly different, it’s still the same game and the fans don’t affect the plans.
I’d love to know what tie coach did ask them. The high press that was talked about all summer has completely disappeared for a start
“Sometimes we want to do something but some days it’s not as we want, you can’t play as you want.”
Not good enough. Not for the money these guys get. And not for the reputation of this club.
They’re people, sometimes it just doesn’t happen the way you intend. It’s done, let’s improve and move on. We all need to keep the belief, we can still beat anyone on our day.
Lacazette said: “We know we are better at home than we are away”
Obvious Q is why?
Secondly, since the players know that, why aren’t they trying harder? Why against Everton they were nearly standing, ambling around? Particularly at the business end of the season, when we had 3rd place up for grabs!
Damn I’m not over that game yet, especially because our season will be defined by our remaining away game results. However, so far we haven’t put in the performance, effort to deserve better.
We should not be losing to team’s like Everton, yet we did. At least a draw I was expecting, but apart from Leno and Sokratis, we were awful. We don’t make life easy for ourselves.
I guess I’m a bit lucky as I didn’t have high expectations on Sunday and I haven’ for our remaining away games. What I’m hoping for is a minor miracle, that our players decide they have the will power/ability to earn that 3/4th place all by themselves and fight like stink for it.
However thats unlikely to happen as fear of failing seems to run deep so time to get in a shrink and rid this team of its away day demons.
Confidence shouldn’t be the result of winning trophies. The team have to be confident in their abilities, then win trophies.
no shit Sherlock we heard that before
The gunners must get to grips with teams which prevent them from playing.During the former managers reign,there was no plan b.
It was pass and pass forever. That’s why the FM’s record against the top 5/6 is appalling.
The passing is too slow and predictable and gives opponent s
time to close all gaps.
Hopefully Emery being pragmatic will Arsenal a new dimension.