Arsenal are yet to keep a clean sheet under Unai Emery, but we very nearly achieved it until a stoppage-time header from Ciaran Clark gave Newcastle a consolation on Saturday. But for the third game in a row we scored more than our opponents and it would appear that Emery places much more importance on the attacking side of our game, but our defence (Mustafi!) still gives us heart attacks at the back.
Sokratis seems to be improving with every game, and considering our wing-backs seem to spend most of the time helping out our strikers, his partnership with Mustafi did not do so badly against Newcastle, although our opposing manager Rafael Benitez thinks that Emery still needs to improve the ‘defensive balance. He said after the game: “He is a good manager that likes to have his team organised. The way he is playing is very similar to what we were doing in Valencia or even in Liverpool.
“The team is organised and pressing, and when you have the ball, passing the ball and trying to play as well as you can.
“The difference is obviously you have a team that used to do that but maybe could have some balance in defence.
“He is trying to do that, he is trying to find this balance, while at the same time keeping the offensive mentality.”
Benitez recognised that even before the game and set his team up to put pressure on our defenders. We managed to keep them out for most of the game, but would we have enjoyed the same success if we were playing one of the top teams?
We would have to admit that after our awful defending in the first few games, we could only improve so do you think that we are going the right way now?
Darren N