Villarreal beat Arsenal 2-1 in the first leg of the Europa League semi-final and it looks like Unai Emery had managed to predict how his former side’s line-up would look like on Thursday.
Mikel Arteta was without some key players but he still managed to get Aubameyang back to full fitness before this all-important match. Everyone was sure the Gabon international will start if he was fully fit but the manager instead chose to play with a false nine, keeping Auba on the bench.
This came as a shock to many pundits and experts but Unai Emery clearly understood the problems that Arteta was facing and how the Arsenal boss could react to them.
“I’m nobody to question Mikel Arteta’s decision, we had the idea that it would approximately be this line up,” said Unai Emery when asked about Arsenal’s team selection, via The Mirror.
“They had several injured players, Aubameyang hadn’t played for a while, I think it’s normal. The first [starting] XI was more or less what we expected.”
Mikel Arteta has chosen to back his decision to play without any recognized strikers on Thursday giving a very bizarre reply to the reporters.
The Gunners boss said: “It’s the way we prepared the game and it’s the decision I made. We thought this was the best way to play but the game was conditioned after four minutes [when Villarreal scored].
“So it’s difficult to assess whether it would work or not. Conceding the set-piece changed it as well, and after we had to approach it in a different way.
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“We’ve played with real strikers sometimes and we didn’t score any goals many times this season. It’s a decision I made and that’s it.”
Aubameyang was brought on with just five minutes of regulation time remaining and this was clearly not enough for the forward to make any sort of significant impact.
A lot of people have since come out to bash the lucid tactics used by Mikel Arteta despite knowing fully well that their Champions League hopes are riding on these two semi-final results. But it’s clear that the manager is not ready to admit his mistakes publicly and has chosen to keep a brave face.
Now, the only thing left for the manager to do is to redeem himself in the second leg at the Emirates by tactical outwitting Unai Emery.
