Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit slams Unai Emery and ‘no character’ performance vs Sheffield United

Arsenal legend Emmanuel Petit has slammed under-fire Gunners boss Unai Emery, the Frenchman added that the club’s recent displays have ‘p***ed’ him off.

According to Mirror Football, Emmanuel Petit seems to be seriously questioning Unai Emery’s position as Arsenal manager following the Gunners’ 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United on Monday night.

The retired Frenchman is massively disappointed with the side’s form away from home since Emery took the reins from Arsene Wenger last summer.

Our former midfielder added that we showed “no character” which “p***es” him off. Our terrible away from was the downfall of Wenger in his final seasons in charge – this should’ve been the first thing that Emery set out to fix.

Chris Wilder set Sheffield United up perfectly as they disrupted out otherwise great start to the Premier League.

It’s almost as though our biggest stars retreat into a shell of their usual selves when we’re playing away from the Emirates.

The defeat at Brammall Lane was only our second of the season, on paper this would suggest that we’ve been amazing under Emery but the Spaniard’s team selections and the side’s general performances indicate otherwise.

In the league, all of our wins this season have been by one-goal margins – this is nowhere near good enough given the opposition we’ve faced to date.

Are we moving backwards under Emery?

Here’s what our former midfield powerhouse had to say on Emery:

“I can understand why many Arsenal supporters are losing patience with Unai Emery,”

“As a manager he has a bad record away from home – not just with Arsenal, but also while he was in Spain.

“Arsenal showed no character and it p***es me off because it has been the case so many times away from home.”

Petit was critical of the Gunners’ performance, adding that we showed ‘no creativity’:

“They gave away so many simple balls and had no inspiration, imagination or creativity. They looked so heavy. This isn’t Arsenal – you need to take the ball and show what you’ve got.

“But I haven’t seen that in years. Nothing has changed since Arsene Wenger left.”

Emery certainly isn’t doing himself any favours as he bids to regain trust from Arsenal supporters, the Spaniard aimed a sly dig towards former boss Arsene Wenger.

It’s clear that we need to be much better if we’re to finish in a Champions League place this season. Our matches in Europe are the only time we’ve truly showed our dangerous free-flowing attacking football.

Similar to the latter stages of Wenger’s time as boss, it seems to be that Emery’s tactics and the mentality of the squad our are downfall.

What changes would you make to improve our chances of getting results on the road?

Tags Emery Emmanuel Petit Unai Emery

13 Comments

  1. Its not only Emery that should bear the criticism but some of our players too they play without drive and purpose sometimes its like no one wants to take up responsibility how many times have an arsenal players scored a goal or how many senior players have put in a man of the match performance apart from auba

    1. But the coach should be the one squeezing out top performances out of the players right?, He should be the one setting them up to take advantage of team’s strength, and to exploit the opposition’s weaknesses, but counterintuitively, he doesn’t field our best 11, and moreso, starts games without any creative player(s). At least if he fields our best 11, and one player is underperforming, we’ll all back him to drop the player. Xhaka and Sokratis aren’t playing well, but they’re usually the first names on the team sheet. So you see, the coach isn’t helping himself on this matter at all, and the blame is solely his.

    2. The boss picks the players, simple as that!

      If players are not performing they should be dropped. That way the players are not blamed, true?

      But, Emery keeps picking the same players that are not (and have not for a long time) performing to a standard the Arsenal requires!!

      Emery seems clueless and lost in a situation that he just does not want to confront head on. He’s avoiding the decisions that only the boldest managers make!

  2. What changes should we make?

    It’s very simple, change Emery.
    We needed someone to make us stronger and better while playing away after Wenger left.
    We don’t need someone scared to play games away or someone very scared of oppositions that he erases off the creativity in the team just to field 10 players and running and passing the ball unnecessarily.

    Everyone is questioning his position now, last season we were called plastic because we saw the frailties on time and spoke out.
    We are all Arsenal fans, we might have different views or approach, but the endpoint remains we all want our team to be the best, we all want Arsenal to be an elite team once again.
    How can we play games, play 22 games unbeaten run and 95% of the winnings came from being lucky or struggling?
    I understand people thought we were crazy to question and call him out because still we were getting points, then it became worse. Fast forward into a new season, it’s the worst I’ve seen us. Every of our league games this season involved struggling to play and win, 90% of our points gathered by PEA. We were all speaking out, whenever PEA doesn’t turn up to create things, we can’t score.
    Even in Wenger’s last bad years, playing football and scoring wasn’t the biggest flaws. Our biggest flaw was the defense and inability to face off with the big boys, the inability to bully small teams.
    Right now everything is worse, we can’t play good football, we struggle to score, we can’t defend, we can’t even face off with the big teams confidently, when its time to play them, our coach becomes scared and approaches it too negatively, and FOR FÛCK SAKES!! WE STILL CANT BULLY LOWER TEAMS!!
    Our problem isn’t players, it’s the manager and the way he sets them up

    1. Well said, Eddie. There are enough talented players in the squad for a better manager to get way more out of this team. There are enough CB options that we shouldn’t be so vunerable to counters and scrambling to stop every attack. Xhaka should not be the first name on the teamsheet. Any manager could see he provides no protection for our backline and our midfielders in general seem to be given no instructions on keeping any sort of shape. None of them do anything more than a sidepass anymore besides Guendouzi… They are all better than that. Even Xhaka has been better in previous seasons than he has this season.

  3. Well, considering Emery couldn’t win away from home in Spain either, I’d say a good start would be getting shot of him!!!

    1. Hahahahah let’s all take a minute to laugh at Manchester United for being g 2 points above relegation because we’re 5th on the table and struggling in every games.
      Let’s all mock Manchester United as if whatever happens to them is of our business and in any way going to improve our performances.
      Arsenal fans and licking other club’s ässes. A good match made in heaven.
      Our fans are either obsessed with Tottenham, or obsessed with Liverpool, United.
      Do you really think Liverpool has the time to think and mock Arsenal for being 5th? You think Liverpool cares about Tottenham’s position?
      They’re fighting for the league, that’s what they’re focused on, focused on every match that comes.
      They won the UCL last season yet almost every Liverpool fans around me were complaining they should’ve won the EPL, or that they’re after the EPL, not a single Liverpool fan close to me mocked Arsenal’s Europa league loss or mocked City for getting out the UCL.
      Yet us Arsenal fans will try to mock other teams struggling as if we’re far more superior.
      We were all mocking United last season isn’t that so? Our drive was we were 9 points ahead. Tell me what happened afterwards?

  4. Emery looked so scared on the touchline against Sheffield he would be wise to take the zippers out of his coats and replace them with Velcro before we have another Wenger-like incident…seriously though, just once start your best 11, which doesn’t include Xhaka but does include Bellerin, Tierney, Holding, Laca, Auba, Ozil, Lucas & Pepe…let’s start the future now…best defence is a good offence!!!

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