Arsenal may have lost Unai Emery’s opening two games as coach, but I personally think that we did see evidence of improvements in some areas, and it is obvious that the old squad and the new players are trying to learn how to play the Emery Way.
But the ex-England striker Alan Shearer thinks that it is going totake a very long time for the new boss to stamp his authority on the players and the club. ‘It is going to be hugely difficult for Unai Emery to get rid of the scent of Arsene Wenger at Arsenal,’ Shearer told The Sun. ‘Wenger’s stamp is all over that football club – in and around the training ground, in and around the Emirates.
‘And it is very difficult for any manager to follow someone who has been at a club for so many years
‘Just look at David Moyes when he followed Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.
‘You cannot expect a guy to be in a club for six weeks and miraculously turn it around and for everything to be rosy again straight away.
‘Arsenal are going to have to suffer for a while and, like it or not, they are going to have to be patient.’
‘It’s small steps. There is no point saying the manager won’t cut it or he won’t be good at this or that.
‘He will probably need 18 months and three transfer windows to get rid of Wenger’s shadow.
‘And you can only really start to judge him after that. Right now, though, it just looks like the same old Arsenal.’
Of course Arsenal still have a lot of players that were nurtured by Wenger, but as Shearer said, there are not going to be great changes overnight, but I believe that the lackadaisical attitude is being stamped out by the new boss. If you don’t follow his instructions and play at the pace he wants you to then you will be replaced by someone who will.
It’s not going to be easy, but I think we are going to see improvements in weeks not years.
What do you think?
Sam P