Unai Emery gave his Europa League pre-match press conference on Wednesday afternoon which on this particular occasion was not predominantly dominated by the upcoming game as is normally the case.
This time around, the boss had a lot to say about Aaron Ramsey and as expected he praised the Welsh Wizard and spoke highly of the 28-year-old.
But of course, he spoke in depth about the game, team confidence, away form, the opponents and so forth but when you narrow it down to the important stuff it became clear to me what Emery feels he needs to get the win over his former club and it can be summed up with these comments.
“We want to win and we want to enjoy, to create this semi-final like something important. We need our supporters and we need to create a big atmosphere tomorrow in Emirates and we are very excited and with big enthusiasm for the match tomorrow” Emery said
“We are looking forward to playing, to being with our supporters, to doing the first leg’s 90 minutes with a big performance and with a good result. But we know it’s going to be very difficult also. I think we need all. We need the players, we need spirit, we need energy, we need our supporters”
And there we have it, players, spirit, energy and the supporters, they are the four ingredients that Emery believes will see us emerge victorious.
And I agree with the boss and this is why.
We have the talent, we have shown that repeatedly this season but our confidence is low right now after a string of shocking defeats, that is what Emery means by players, he needs the players to show up, be confident and perform to their true abilities, who can argue with that?
He needs spirit and by that he means team spirit, he is demanding the players play as a unit, no blame game, no questioning team selection. As the four musketeers say, all for one and one for all. That is team spirit.
We are at the end of a very long season and the players must show energy from the kick-off and maintain that energy right up to the final whistle. This is a battle of attrition and we must show more energy than Valencia because tired players make mistakes.
And finally the supporters and the lads do need us, they have let us down and we have hammered them for it, we have criticised the players like mad and they have deserved it but it is time to put our anger, disappointment and frustration to one side and get behind the team 100%. The atmosphere in the stadium has to be electric and passionate because if it is, the players will feel it, they will soak it up and it will give them a much-needed boost.
WE MUST GET BEHIND OUR TEAM AND MAKE A GREAT ATMOSPHERE IF WE MAKE OUR PLAYERS FEEL 6FEET TALL THEY WILL FILL THE ENERGY FROM US FANS,AND ALSO THE OPPOSITION WILL FILL NERVOUS COME ON ARSENAL WE WILL NOT BE DEFEATED WE ARE THE…ARSENAL
It won’t do a great deal of good to the players over 6ft tall!
Are you kidding Nick, do you go to any of the games. let me tell you, ten minutes before half time half the crowd are out the back stuffing their self with their pies and pints with hardly any interest in the game. The atmosphere at the Emirates sucks apart from a section to the right hand side of the North Bank. They’ve got just two songs, “the world has ever seen” and “what do you think of Tottenham”. Don’t even sing “come on you reds” anymore. Totally a new audience from the Highbury days, I’d say 90% of the Emirates crowd never went to Highbury. Hate to say it but Tottenham’s crowd put Arsenal’s to shame. Did you see the Camp Nou tonight, not a space to be seen when they kicked off the second half, now you look at the Emirates crowd tonight when we kick off the second half, the stadium will be half empty. I do realise that the Camp Nou, being an old stadium hasn’t got the amenities that the Emirates has but that’s the problem, the Camp nou is a real football stadium, the Emirates is a giant money spinning restaurant/ bar/ stadium. Perfect for the prawn sandwich brigade, but not for die hard football fans.
Phil, replying to a previous post about Ajax in ’71/72. Yes of course I was their Phil, I was also at the away leg when they absolutely slaughtered us at the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam however we came away with just a 2-1 defeat but it could have been 5-1 on the night. However they beat us 1-0 in the second leg at Highbury courtesy of an own goal by George Graham. Cruyff was amazing that night as was Ruud Krol, who got the tickets for us in the first leg in Amsterdam. Ruud was close friend after we met when I working in a discotheque Spain in the late sixties. He was only a junior player with Ajax at the time but over the years I spent working in Spain he became a superstar. Stayed in touch for many years. He ended up captaining Holland at the 1978 World Cup in Argentina. Played against him in a charity game in the early seventies, London Workers eleven against a Dutch eleven and scored a dubious goal, should have heard him moan to the ref, you’d have thought it was a World Cup final, so competitive.
2-0 is the perfect score with an away goal in Valencia, should be enough (again). 5-1 would have been a better reflection on last nights game. Imagine what Barcelona would done to the spuds!
work hard please for win win on the remaining games for arsenal`s hope for UEFA 2019/20
I watched the Barcelona/Liverpool game this morning with a particular interest in Lionel Messi and his partner in crime Suarez. I had two reasons for getting up at that early hour, one was to see the pair in action and the second, my wife`s a Scouser. Being an Arsenal supporter I was looking for the magic that Arsenal needs to have any success in Europe. Take Messi and Suarez out of the side and Barcelona are still a very good football side, include them and they`re dynamite. What is it that makes Messi the footballer he is? Well, he doesn`t seem to get hurt a lot, so he`s reliable, this may be in part due to the fact he has a low centre of gravity and plays his football on the ground. He`s mainly a finisher not a feeder so his personal plan is to be `johnnie on the spot`, this requires him to have great stamina and be super fit. Then there`s his natural skills , of course. Suarez is also a finisher but he`s more like watching an express train and he doesn`t believe in taking prisoners. Arsenal need two (not one) like them and the rest will fall into line. “Up spirits” as we used to say in my navy days. This is where the supporters come in…..
Good observations Jack. I also watch Messi just to appreciate his talents and how the game is supposed to be played. He is truly the best player in the world.
Good posts by Aussie Jack and ArsenalWhy, as you said Aussie Jack, natural talent, but the most important thing, he’s Argentinian, when you watch a game from the Argentine like Boca Juniors and River Plate the amount of natural ability is astounding. In my opinion, the best players on the planet.
Kenny..All the more reason to send scouts to the Argentine. Street football is a great way to develop skills, it is so unpredictable you learn to adjust to the conditions. That`s how I learned in the north of England kicking lumps of coal and stones then elevating to an old tennis ball. We had a goal chalked out on the gasworks wall and I didn`t often miss. It did wonders for the imagination of a young boy.
No elneny
No mustafi
Only plan needed
Cojones
Team……
Cheq
Amn. Sok. Kos. Monreal
Xakai
Torrer. Guzzen
Nekketi. Laccaz. Auba
For people to even think that Maitland Niles will come any good is a fallacy. I said at the beginning of the season that our midfield was the weakest ever. I can’t even imagine that people are going on about how we will miss Ramsey. My God!!! How the mighty have fallen.