Unai Emery could land himself in even hotter water with Arsenal fans after he seemed to make a sly dig towards Arsene Wenger in a bid to defend his time in charge of the Gunners.
According to Goal’s Charles Watts, Unai Emery passionately defended his reign as Arsenal boss during his pre-match press conference ahead of tonight’s Europa League clash with Vitoria.
It appeared as though the Spaniard aimed a slight dig towards Arsene Wenger by stating that “sometimes we forget the memory and we need to remember.”
Emery added that the Gunners needed to be more “competitive” when he arrived. This gives off the vibe that our current boss was referring to the struggles we faced in Wenger’s final seasons in charge.
The pressure is mounting on the former PSG and Sevilla boss after our defeat to Sheffield United on Monday night.
We looked to be making real progress under the Spaniard until this week’s setback.
Fortunately I believe tonight’s Europa League tie couldn’t have come at a better time, we’ve been brilliant in Europe so far this season and we’ll be expected to making things right this evening.
Here’s what Emery had to say on his time as Arsenal boss so far:
“Sometimes we forget the memory and we need to remember, when I arrived here, this team needed to improve being more competitive.”
“This club, historically, was winning 1-0 and being very competitive, but it wasn’t enough.
“Then it was being competitive with improved creativity. When I arrived, the creativity was good, but being competitive was worse. It was not enough.
“I think last year I started to improve being competitive, with some very good matches playing with creativity.
“This year we are in a process, but we need patience because our strategy as a club is with some new players and some young players. We changed 10 players and are continuing being competitive. Creativity, maybe we lost a little, but I know we are going to recover that.”
With all respect to Portuguese outfit Vitoria, we’ll be expected to come through tonight’s test fairly comfortably.
Hopefully Emery uses this evening’s game to blood some of our players back into the starting eleven after their spells on the sidelines.
We can’t approach Sunday afternoon’s clash with Crystal Palace like we did with Sheffield otherwise Roy Hodgson’s men will punish us.
We’ve got the perfect chance to turn in a solid performance and also nail down our best lineup tonight.