Unai Emery had a very fruitful summer transfer window as he managed to bring in reinforcements for almost every department at Arsenal but right now he is not doing a very good job with his new-look squad.
Well, that’s according to pundit Paul Merson.
Merson while talking to Sky Sports after the North London Derby chose to speak up against Unai Emery and his tactics vs Spurs and he even went on to compare the Spanish manager with Arsene Wenger.
Speaking to Sky Sports Merson said: “The north London derby was a great spectacle, a proper game, and Arsenal would have taken a draw when they were two goals down. But has anything changed at Arsenal? I don’t think so.
“Arsenal were commended for not collapsing at Liverpool the week before, credit where credit’s due, but nothing has changed. It’s like Unai Wenger is running things at the moment.
“Every time Tottenham broke they looked like they were going to score, Arsenal were that open. The midfield issues were serious.
“With a lack of service Arsenal are reliant on their strikers scoring brilliant goals week in, week out, but that’s not going to happen all the time and that’s going to be the problem,
“Unai Emery has missed a trick with a midfield player.
“The only solution I see would be to play the front three with Mesut Ozil in the hole behind them and have two holding in front of the back four. The four attackers can get on with scoring goals and then the rest can try and keep them out at the other end.”
Verdict:
Unai Emery obviously tried to do something different with his first XI on Sunday vs their arch-rivals and unfortunately, it did not work out.
And his biggest blunder was not to include Dani Ceballos from the very beginning.
Some reports have claimed that Unai Emery did not want to risk using the summer signing in such a high profile match but Ceballos’ absence is perhaps the biggest reason why Spurs dominated the match for a very long time(and also took a 2-0 lead).
Having said that though, the Gunners showed real character especially in the second half and this trait is something that had been missing from an Arsene Wenger side(during his final years with the club).
It is still early days to make any concrete judgements but it seems Unai Emery knows what he is doing and when the likes of Holding and Tierney return to the fold then maybe the boss will be able to take bolder decisions in other areas of the pitch.
