Unai Emery’s Arsenal may have amassed more points at this stage of the season than in any of the previous five campaigns, but the Spaniard continues to preach a ‘game by game’ mentality to his players.
Sunday’s 2-0 win over Southampton saw the Gunners climb up to 4th in the Premier League, however, with 11 games to go and only three points separating us from Chelsea, in 6th position, he’s made clear we’ll have to stay focused to secure a return to the Champions League.
“Enjoy the moment but only thinking game-by-game,” he told press ahead of Wednesday’s clash with Bournemouth.
“Tomorrow we can continue in this position, but only if we win. We need to be consistent in 38 matches.
“Tomorrow is one more. It’s very important because three points is not coming back after you play this match.
“You need to play against Bournemouth thinking that we need and we wish to take these three points.”
After Wednesday’s showdown with the Cherries, we take on Sp*rs at Wembley at the weekend, then face Manchester United in between a Europa League double-header against French side Rennes. The next three weeks promise to be season-defining.
Asked about the focus and mentality his players need as the fixtures pile up, Emery replied, “It’s one process, to build up every day with the training and every match, to take information that is being given to us in each match.
“Every player knows whether our team of players, in each moment, how they are responding. Also in the difficult moments, how they respond is very important.
“The balance is important in every player and above all they have confidence and trust in us and in our work.
“Now is a very important moment in the season with the Premier League and the Europa League and I am looking for the best performance individually and collectively and to be consistent with that.
“Our moment is very important our focus is very important to take consistently.”
About time we heard this kind of passion and demanding nature from an Arsenal manager.
Never going to stop being entertained by the yo yo fan base at this club.
Have always backed Emery because says it out loud, and for me personally he has handled the Ozil situation, the journey of unbeaten run to a slump and the current position. Let’s judge him at the end of next season.
Has handled the Ozil situation well, and also the changes behind the scenes. Surely the turmoil hasn’t made his job easier in his first season, he made sure the players were focused on the pitch and the results. We’ll make it to the top 4 and win the Europa league.
I know that whole “more points amassed at a certain point” stat can sometimes be a bit misleading as fixtures season upon season are never constant, but still surprised nonetheless
Really need to grab this now, 11 games left. 3 points tomorrow are an absolute must with Spurs and Man utd next
In this instance I think it’s applicable because last year 3 of our last 11 games were against Top 6 opponents and this year only 2 of our last 11 games are against Top 6 teams.
So it’s not applicable..
The point being made is that we are in the position we are despite having had to play top 6 opponents early on. The fact we only have 2 top 6 opponents left is a good thing right?
I thoroughly enjoyed his Bournemouth pre-match presser. I like that whenever he’s asked something about his philosophy he says ‘it’s a process’ . I like that he’s taking his time to understand the club on and off the pitch. When Graham left the club we had a solid backline. Wenger added flair and maded us successful. Wenger left the club in a very good condition and that is evident from our Home form. Emirates does feel like home to us now more than ever. Emery is trying to add organisation, aggression and intensity to the free flowing Wenger philosophy but… Read more »
@ramgooner While I admire your optimism, Ozil will only have 2 years left on his contract and it will take more than 2 years to build a squad that compete with Liverpool or City over the course of an entire season. The entire question with Ozil right now is if somehow Emery can somehow get him to consistently perform at a worldclass level vs. how much it will move the rebuild forward to move him on. This squad quite simply isn’t good enough to compete for anything other than 4th – it still needs quite a bit of work and… Read more »
Unless we spend similar amounts of money we have to be extremely efficient with our existing funds to catch up to man city and Liverpool.
Financially no one is catching up with City, however as we have seen this season they are not invincible. Liverpool looked to have their number but even they have fallen by the wayside and will struggle to wrestle the title from them unless they can find some form and adopt that winners mentality they showed when they ran all over us at Anfield. Personally I don’t think it’s all about money. If we had a decent defence we would have been right up there because we scored more than almost every other team at the start of the season. The… Read more »
Money matters in that most of man city’s reserves would be automatic starters for us. Building out the squad means having enough depth to compete over an entire season – not just on one off games
You have a point. Emery indeed looked obsessed with fixing the defense and finding the balance. To a point where it seems he abandoned some of his principles. Even Suarez commented on him being different than with Sevilla, not coaching the team on his attacking combinations…etc
More about making us better defensively. I sympathize with his efforts, but I can’t say he’s successful at mending the defense.
But to be fair I think the problem is more general than a simple line organization or team selection. We need better players in order to witness any tangible improvement.
The equation is simple. Win every game between now and the end of the season, we finish top 4 AND are Europa League Champs. Get to play the CL twice next season then hahah. Its not too difficult 🙂
Back here in reality world, the games v Spurs and MANU are vitally important to not lose. Especially the MANU game. The quicker those knob jockeys are put back in thier place the better for everyone else around the world.
Yeah we really should have beaten them at old toilet, so getting one over them at home is a must – especially as, until the injuries, I thought we looked good against them in the FA cup match!!!! I think I loathe manure slightly more than spuds tbh!!!
We’ve all had our reservations about emery during our tough run with the ozil saga having a significant influence on how some of us have seen him. Hopefully we can put a nail in the coffin of our disappointing run once and for all with 3 good results in the next 3 games, if emery manages to grab top 4 fucking ace but if not let’s make sure we play some really stylish football and put in performances we can all be proud of.
Not an entirely insignificant fortnight ahead.
Catch Spurs, put distance between us and MU.
This is it. Two finals plus we also have to do the business against the “lesser” teams in between.
No point doing the business against Spurts and bleeding points against Bournemouth.
If we get at least 4 points against Spurs (1 point) and MANU (3 points), then we have a great chance to finish in top four this season.
Oh how sweet the full 3 points against the vagabonds would be. Hope we treat the Wembley game like a cup final. Ramsey to start, perhaps?
What a fine job Emery has done. 4th in the league with such a deficient squad and taking over from a managerial legend. Hats off to Unai.
Anyone else impressed with Sarabia at Sevilla? Sign?
Gotta win ’em all!