I am personally really impressed with the way Unai Emery is trying to impress his way of playing onto his new Arsenal squad, and also instilling a never say die attitude, whether we are winning or losing. We saw that the team maybe even tried harder against Man City after going behind, and the new coach is insistent that they must try their hardest for the full 90 minutes no matter what happens.
Arsenal’s away record was abysmal last season, but he believes that we can prove this weekend that our attitude has changed under the new regime. “We wanted to start [in front of] our supporters, against a great team like Manchester City, but the difficulty on the pitch was big.” he said on Arsenal.com. “For me, the result is very important but also the way [of the result]. I think we can improve in each match, in each training. The difficulty is clear: I believe in our team, I believe in our players. We can improve and we need to improve playing in the difficult games. Our demands are very high and I want these demands for me first, but also for the players and the club. We need to work hard, we need to work together and we need to suffer together when we lose. It’s the same for me, for the players and for the club. When you are [at the op or at the bottom] you need the resilience. You shouldn’t change your mentality if you lose the first game. I want a consistency in our way [performances]. I want us to do well with our thinking and our mentality.
“We have one plan, we have one process. Maybe in one match you can be very happy with the performance and the result – and I want that on Saturday. But then you need more time to completely watch your team as you want [them to play]. For example, on Sunday, we saw good things on the pitch. I want us to show more personality in each match to improve, so the performances arrive quickly. Saturday is a very good option to show our personality, our capacity against a big team like Chelsea, and away from home. [When you’re] away, you have an opportunity to change last year’s difficulties when the team played away. On Saturday we need to be a more competitive team on the pitch to change these away performances.”
It won’t be easy, and the change in the mentality may not be quick, but I am coming to believe in Emery’s attitude more and more every day. But we all know that the one thing we have wanted to see for quite a few years, is an Arsenal team that will fight for every point, from the beginning of the game until the end, no matter the opponent….
Keep the Faith!
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