Unai Emery saw his Villarreal team concede a goal against ten-man Arsenal in their 2-1 win over the Gunners last night.
Arsenal and the Spanish side faced off against each other in the Europa League semi-final first leg.
It was a tense game that saw both sides receive red cards and the second leg is now one to look forward to because of Arsenal’s away goal.
The Gunners started the game slowly which enabled the hosts to race to a 2-0 lead, but they eventually pulled a goal back after Nicolas Pepe converted a penalty.
It was a game that Villarreal should have killed off but for a fine save from Bernd Leno.
However, Unai Emery’s substitution on the night was also too cautious and Standard Sports’ Simon Collings believes his subs spoilt their moment and gave Arsenal a way back into the game.
He says if Emery hadn’t been “toothless”, his team would have killed off the Gunners in this first leg.
He writes: “The Gunners, however, could so easily have been staring down the barrel had Villarreal taken the chance to kill the tie. Mikel Arteta has moaned about his side not being ruthless this season, but Unai Emery was toothless here.
“He hauled off his striker Paco Alcacer at half-time for Francis Coquelin, deciding the 2-0 lead he had was enough.
“With the benefit of hindsight, it feels like a mistake as Arsenal were there for the taking. Samuel Chukwueze had Granit Xhaka, who struggled filling in at left-back, on the ropes and helped set up Trigueros for the hosts’ first goal.”
Samuel Chukwueze is very skilful player if you watch la liga. He capable of tearing any deffence apart. Madrid, barcelona have all been victims.
When i saw xhaka at LB yesterday what came to mind was our game against Everton. Samuel Chukwueze is a better dribbler than Richalison, so what was Arteta doing?
But kudos to Xhaka in the second half he was able to tame the tired Samuel Chukwueze. He did that back to back and reduced the threat.
Xakha keeped him quit….Granit bar the brain farts here and there plays often well…
I think it’s high time fans stop their negative approach towards, Xhaka. He was far much better than Chambers who has no timing, that’s why Saka’s game has dropped a little bit, because he is searching for balls most of the time.
Xhaka has been a poor footballer since the day he joined Arsenal, make his obligatory mistake every single game and many lead to goals. Thats because he is very ponderous.
Xhaka played well. He deserves credit.
Emery won the battle of the first half and then shot himself in the foot going all defensive second half. They should have been out of sight after Artetas poor decision making last night.
Arsenal were there for the taking!
guys let’s all be calm, I see arsenal tearing vill
areal apart at the emirate