Unai Emery says that the development of Fabinho at Liverpool is evidence that certain players can take time to adapt to the Premier League.
The Brazilian signed for the Mugsmashers last summer, but took some time to get used to English football, and the Arsenal boss revealed he was player he’d have liked to sign as he urged fans to be patient with club record arrival Nicolas Pepe.
The Ivorian hasn’t quite found his best form, and while anyone with common sense can understand it’s too early in his Gunners career to make definitive judgements, Emery reiterated his belief in the £72m man.
“We spent money with Pepe, but Pepe needs time to adapt to the Premier League,” he said ahead of Arsenal’s Europa League clash with Vitoria.
“For example, in France I loved a lot Fabinho. He was in Monaco and I wanted to sign him for Paris Saint-Germain.
“When I arrived here, also his name was on the table to achieve to sign him, but he signed for Liverpool.
“The first six months he didn’t play, it was adaptation, but now he is amazing and I want the same with Ceballos, with Pepe.
“We need patience, but Pepe is improving. On Monday, the key to win was with him. If he scores the first goal, it’s different.
“But it’s one process and I believe in him and I know we need time and patience.
“The supporters have patience, some more than others.”
Pepe is unlikely to start tonight’s encounter with the Portuguese side, but could feature from the bench to try and build his confidence with a goal from open play.
Pepe is not the problem. Emery is. So shit up
Exactly, it looks like he is diverting attention away from himself and his performance by trying to point the finger at some of the players
Emery does need to replaced if things dont start improving quickly, but its very likely he was asked a question about Pepe for him to say this.
Should have read your comment before posting my own…
He’s not diverting attention away from himself, he’s making a valid point, that many players take a while to settle into the intensity of the PL, and fans should be patient.
Rich, I didn’t notice any of your posts after the last match. You’re usually pretty reliable in explaining how we should give Emery time. Were you busy on Sunday?
A different George, Sorry to be pedantic, but it was Monday, not Sunday…. Glad to hear you were missing me though xxx
is that the same Different George who always said sensible things in defence of Wenger’s bad spells like “give the manager time to turn it around”?
Now trying to mock the idea of giving managers time. You love to see it
He was obviously asked a question about pepe and answered it by defending him. Lets not start seeing things that arent there
Pissing on the flaming torches of the angry mob won’t be popular, even though you’re absolutely right. Everything will now be HATE HATE HATE no matter what Emery says or what the article is about.
The mob jury have decided and that’s that.
Anyone else find it concerning he has cited Fabinho as a sort of poster boy Premier League player that’s taken time to adapt to a new league and has all of sudden ‘arrived’ ? When he signed for Liverpool I thought he was fairly shit, and I wasn’t that impressed with him. And I still think he is fairly shit now. There has been literally zero improvement in him. I’d even go as far as to say he is one of Liverpool’s weakest most limited players. Sure he looked alright when he played for Monaco, but he’s hardly set the… Read more »
“ And I still think he is fairly shit now. “
Please repeat this to a Liverpool fan and listen to the sound of their jaw as it drops to the floor.
Emery not having the most endearing of personalities is one thing, but spouting rubbish about these comments is uber cynical at best.
Also, Fabinho is by far a much more capable Premier League pivot than Torreira; on the evidence of what I’ve seen to date.
The above statement was made while wearing my Rose-tinted Arsenal glasses.
yeah Fabinho is deceptively good because he looks slow, but he’s like Per Mertesacker in that his positioning is elite and he passes the ball early and accurately – which makes everyone he plays with look a better player
It’s not rubbish — and it doesn’t matter what you say to Liverpool fans, they are the most delusional fan base around bar maybe Spurs.
Yes, I’ll say it again. Fabinho is bang average. He’s not very mobile. Always has a mistake in him. Gives the ball away a lot.
Guendouzi is better than him.
Most of my friends and family are Liverpool fans and they absolutely love him. I don’t quite see it either, but I’m guessing if they watch their team week in week out, maybe they see something g us gooners don’t. I dunno.
I think it’s a bit rich implying that some fans don’t have patience. We’ve been served warm, sloppy poos for well over a season and no one has said anything. Even with last seasons run in and the Europa final, we kept quiet. But when the performances still don’t come, it’s time to speak up and question the managers methods.
So you haven’t heard the clamour to get rid of Pepe because he’s not living up to his pricetag? In relation to those comments from fans, this is a reasonable response to what is unreasonable reaction to Pepe.
You need to get off Twitter mate. No one with any critical capabilities is saying that…
Pepe looked good against Shef United the other day, he will be good for us I have no doubts or worries about him to be honest. I think the key is having someone to overlap him on the right so he can then dart more into the area. I can see some great things to come with him and Hector playing together on the right, beating defenders and having a good ball for Hector to whip into the box. Ditto on the left with Tierney and Abua/Saka. This is still what I am grasping onto hope for that things can… Read more »
Auba is a waste out on the left mate. Let’s be frank. The only reason we put him there is so we can have all three of Pepe, Laca and Auba on the field. That’s another conundrum for Emery to fix and frankly I’m not keeping my hopes up.
Adrian Clarke thought Pepe was our best player at Sheffield, and his WhoScored rating was also our highest. He missed a great chance, and that’s what people remember, but he played really well overall. Would be still better with Bellerin on his outside and someone (why bother saying the name) who can create chances for him from the midfield.
I feel the same, or at least I’m hanging onto that notion, before concluding on the coach. My gut feeling is that he may not be the man to take us to Premier League glory, but he’s here to bridge the gap to the next phase. I felt before the start of the Season that we severely lacked in midfield, and the fullback positions. We attempted addressing the later, but our midfield woes (neither proficient in defence nor attack) still remain. While I point a pinky finger at the couch, the other fingers are pointing squarely on personnel. Guendouzi –… Read more »
Our mid fields better than United this season.
Very well said
Even Pires took 6 months to settle in.
I’m not an “Emery Out”….yet…
But starting to develop an antagonistic attitude with at least some of the supporters is just about the worst move he could make unless he wants to dial the pressure up on himself to 11.
Take a step back Unai and absorb the criticism is you are that sure that things will come good.
This was one heck of a press conference. He was really defending everything and it actually sounds like there is a plan, unfortunately it also seems like we are at the start of a cycle rather than 18 month in. We might have to reevaluate our expectations
I have patience, but its wearing very thin after a lot of absolutely dog shit performances. Sort it out Emery!
“The first six months he didn’t play, it was adaptation, but now he is amazing and I want the same with Ceballos, with Pepe”.
Fair enough, problem with the statement is Ceballos is on loan without an option to buy.
He still hasn’t been amazing, after that Burnley game. You can’t expect an immediate return just because there’s a limit on how long a player’s here for. If he hasn’t adapted, then he hasn’t adapted. The manager can try but it won’t happen overnight.
Problem is he is emery and not KLOPP
There are rumours about that we have offered $26m to buy him in Jan and Real have asked for $30m. I think I probably believe those rumours, it makes sense for us and with Real getting their shit together again it looks like Zidane is staying for a while.
I think he will be an Arsenal player soon enough.
Those rates for a Spanish international seems low. However, I would like to believe a deal is worked out.
I also a deal is worked out to replace Emery. Other than the 1st 6 months, the results and performances have been going down hill. Its tedious to hear Emery speak about the process, wonder how it’s for the players!
€30m would be a steal given someone like Lo Celso is going to Sp*rs for €60m.
Pepe is gradually improving and adapting to the league. Emery is heading in the other direction.
Raul and Josh did their part in the summer and this leaves Unai with no further excuses.
Hmmm… So what about, say, a player who has been underperforming for 3 years, or a manager clueless for 1.5 year?
Emery is becoming more nuisance, I miss what i love about Arsenal, it’s fun to watch Arsenal play but more fun watching Özil perform his magic in the pitch.
Can we drop the BS with Ozil? There are glaring problems with Emery but now we’re suddenly turning to Ozil to turn our fortunes around? The EL final wasn’t that long ago mate, FFS
So Ozil was the ONLY reason we lost that game…?
Obviously not. But Ozil, like all players who aren’t in the team, becomes mythically more effective with each week that he isn’t picked. Ozil is not the answer and hasn’t been when we’ve tried to use him for a long time. I still think it’s stupid to leave him out of the squad but anyone under the illusion he’ll drag us out of the doldrums hasn’t been paying attention.
Rewatch that match. Tell me Ozil was worse than six or seven other players.
This is a very strange set of comments from the manager. Why not simply say that Pepe is doing fine and will continue to improve as he gets used to the league? By implying that Pepe is underperforming this surely adds pressure on the player rather then easing it. UE has all the charisma of a house brick.
I am totally 100% behind Pepe to succeed at Arsenal, for UE I can’t say i love his style of tactics, The rotation of players, how he does it is my problem.
He’s taken a leaf out of the Wenger “I was close to signing X player” book.
He’s also basically told Torreira he wanted to sign someone else. We knew about Nzonzi, now this
I read the translation that the interest was there already at the club, ( spoke off record to agent etc.. As is the way) when uni,arrived at Arsenal which makes complete sense as Wenger and Grimandi,would have known about him Fabinho. Most of the top teams in Europe were linked with him.
Have always thought nzonzi, great player remember away at Stoke he totally bossed mikel’artery a, and jack.w. We lost ,and he nzonzi, stood at the same height as bfg. Which bloke behind me keep repeting to his mate.
There are an alarming number of similarities between late wenger and Emery. Overly defensive of his players, system, and also calling for patience. Tactics that focus on what they want rather than fitting tactics to suit the players we have. Rambling on a bit too much, when really what happens on the pitch speaks much louder than words. Playing favourites with certain guys in the squad when it looks pretty clear there needs to be changes made. Wenger is a legend, but at the end he was making too many mistakes and locked into his system to much. It really… Read more »
Can we get a vote of confidence in Emery from the board.
They already did (about a month or so back I think it was)…the end might be closer than we think. Surely not playing Tierney in the league is really pissing off Edu, Raul, and Venkat who were responsible for brining him in. Similarly, comments about “I wanted Fabinho” too aren’t going to please them…as for the results and the fan sentiment…well they speak for themselves and as Blogs reported Edu stayed back to discuss things with fans recently. I can’t imagine he just randomly ran into only Emery supporters.
So after throwing Pepe under a bus by basically blaming him for losing the game on Monday, he is now quickly backtracking because nobody appreciated the blame game. He also blames having to play young players, has a pop at Wenger and says he has made us competitive again when everything is worse. What an embarrassment.
How long will it take Xhaka to get used to the pace of the EPL? If the fans can see the problem from the terraces how can the coaches not see it from the dugout?
Why would he say this? Right now, most Arsenal fans have no problem with Pepe. He’s been here for only a couple months, of course he needs time to settle, and there are encouraging signs. Emery has had more than a season though and shows no signs of settling or progressing. The lack of patience is with him, not Pepe. This stinks of the coach deflecting criticism from himself personally (saying essentially that we didn’t win because Pepe didn’t score, ignoring we have the whole game to create chances) and sticking it on Pepe, one of his players. Coming from… Read more »
I can agree with that, something rare to say about Emery’s statements lately. Better to give support to Pepe than throw him under a bus.
The thing I don’t like and where he made this irritating is saying that if he scored, things would be different. We were nowhere near creative enough and even when we were losing, players did not show enough desire to fight and get back into the game. I know they parked the bus etc after they scored but still.
Can’t wait for this guy to leave.
Still not sacked? #EmeryOut or riots.
Until Emery goes we will have to get used to sausage instead of cavier
Arsenal should have given the 200m to Arsene
Emery doesn’t park the bus, but he has one on hand to throw players under. He’s blaming the loss to Sheffield Utd on Pepe missing the shot that would’ve been the first goal. But the way we were playing was awful and disjointed – where were our other chances? Sheffield were likely to score with our terrible defending (they had lots of corners) so its no certain thing that if we’d scored first that we’d have won. Honestly – this is passive/ aggressive from Unai, saying a ‘nice’ thing (be patient) and then blaming the player for the loss. I’m… Read more »
He is mutating into Mourinho but without the trophies.
Besides Pepe’s miss, he also blamed the loss on the penalty we should have had (Sokratis being pulled). Other than Xhaka’s long-range shot, I can’t think of a legitimate dangerous moment.
I don’t see any of aubameyang or lacazette renewing their contract until they are sure of champions league….will you blame them?
And when they have 1.5 or 1 year left on their contract, we’ll have to sell them, at a cut price, and start again from scratch looking for another top striker.
Champions league yes, but when do they get to the point that they ask, “will Emery still be the coach if I sign?”.
He’s kidding, right? Right?
is it just me or Emery has had a lot to say lately…desperate perhaps?
Nailed it