Unai Emery was defiant in the face of criticism after the Gunners were humbled by BATE in Belarus against a team that hadn’t played competitively for two months. The Spaniard yet again left Ozil out completely and he defended his team selection after the game. “Last week we won and we played with the same players,” he said. “For me today there was no difference to the performance. We deserved to win but didn’t get the result.”
“They were very organized defensively and they found the moment in the game. It’s not for one player or another. We can win with every player and lose with the same players.”
This same team struggled to beat bottom side Huddersfield last weekend, and many think that we were lucky to get away with a win, so it was a similar performance to last week, but neither of them were impressive!
But Emery must be praying that they can get themselves together for the return leg even though Lacazette can’t play, and he is confident that we will turn it around. “It’s the first match,” Emery continued. “We are going to play another 90 minutes next week and I’m sure it’s going to be different.
“Our big opportunity is next week at home. Today is not the result we wanted. We deserved more but they worked for this. Next week is going to be different with our supporters.”
We certainly hope so because we can hardly afford to crash out of the only competition we have a chance of winning at this early stage. Surely Emery must be feeling the pressure right now…
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