As we all know Arsenal are going through a run of awful performances which culminated in our defeat to lowly BATE last week, but Unai Emery has promised to stick to his “gameplay” despite the recent performances. He told Arsenal.com: “It was a bad result last week, but the team worked with our planning and we had chances to score and every chance we need to improve tomorrow. We need to continue with our gameplay despite the bad result. Tomorrow we must manage 90 minutes with the result to get a good result for us, but knowing that this is 1-0 we need to be very consistent. We also need to get into their box, find the best positions to score and be efficient.
“We need a big result to manage this game better, but I think we have experience and every player knows tomorrow we are playing against an organised team. They have big motivation after that result, and we must do the best performance and I ask our supporters because I think they can help us achieve a good performance to come back into the game. My confidence is if we play like we can and play together for 90 minutes, like we are doing at home, I have the confidence and trust in our players.”
I’m not sure if the fans actually understand what Emery’s gameplay actually is, unless it is 5 at the back and 2 DMs, and if this is supposed to help us to keep clean sheets it is clearly not working as we have conceded in our last 5 games! I have a feeling that he is set on trying that again tonight. He is even thinking that he has to prepare for possible extra time tonight. “For us tomorrow is a very important match, after the first result we must manage the 90 minutes and also know if we need more minutes after the 90 minutes it can be in our mind with the preparation to do that.”
And again he hopes that the crowd can get behind the team to spur them on. “It is also very important to play in our stadium with our supporters, and we need their support for this match and I hope there is a big atmosphere for us. Together, with their support, I know our players can play and give their all.”
To be honest I can’t see the fans (however many turn up) being extra cheerful if we just go defensive again against a team we should be attacking and expecting to score a hatful of goals against. If he does set up to defend it would smack of desperation on his side. Where is the confidence we should expect from an Arsenal side playing minnows. Do we have no self-belief at all?
Darren N