Arsenal’s new coach Unai Emery was brought in to replace Arsene Wenger amid much rejoicing from Arsenal fans, with the promise of new ideas, tactics and improvements to our rickety defence. But his first game against Man City only saw him give debuts to Sokratis and surprise-package Guendouzi, and he started with just Aubameyang up front, and to be honest it didn’t look much different to one of Wenger’s teams.
One person who was not impressed in the slightest was our legendary ex-captain Tony Adams, who laid into the Spaniard after our facile defeat. “It was the same kind of performance. I was a little bit deflated and disappointed.” Adams said. “Coming from Arsene who always played open attacking football, I really wanted the new manager to come in there and tighten things up.
“For the last 10 years now – [we’ve been] leaking goals, soft away from home.
“I wanted him to put his new goalkeeper [Bernd Leno] in, work with his back four, have two screening central-midfield players, and keep a clean sheet.
“It was crying out for it. But I didn’t see that. I thought he got a lot of selections wrong.
“His three best players were his subs [Alexandre Lacazette, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Lucas Torreira]. I don’t know why he didn’t start with them.”
Adams also doesn’t believe that the performance gave fans hope of better to come in the future. He continued: “From minute one, I would’ve picked my own goalkeeper, my back four and put the two lads in that I want to screen those, and get a firm base that’s been missing for the last ten years.
“You’ve had six weeks of pre-season – go on, get on with it!
“Arsenal fans up and down the country all want him to challenge for the title but at the moment we’re nowhere near.”
Perhaps Adams has been a bit harsh, but the starting line-up was hardly the revolutionary one we expected from Emery. Has he just played it a little too safe in his first game?
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