No festive break for Emery’s Gunners

UNAI EMERY called on Arsenal’s players to deliver a ‘perfect Christmas’ as he prepared for his first festive season in the job.

Having worked in Spain, Russia and France, Emery is more used to spending time with his family over the festive period. Instead, he was with his squad on Christmas Day finalising plans for this evening’s visit to Brighton.

The Spaniard said: ‘Usually the holidays come around perfectly for us every time, but I am still going to enjoy it working.

‘I think it’s very important for the supporters (to see teams play over Christmas). Playing against Brighton is perfect, Liverpool (Saturday) is perfect and playing on January 1 against Fulham is perfect. We are going to enjoy it ... but only if we win.’

Emery is set to recall captain Laurent Koscielny for today’s trip to the AMEX Stadium. Having only recently recovered from a seven-month spell on the sidelines with an achilles injury, Koscielny missed Saturday’s win over Burnley. Emery’s squad is severely stretched by injuries, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan the latest victim with a fractured metatarsal in his right foot that will see him miss around six weeks. Nevertheless, Emery will not unnecessarily rest players during the next week despite the threat of further injuries.

He said: ‘In my career I never made these decisions. We are going to play the next match in Brighton and we are going to play full, not with considered options or playing with more caution.

‘The same three points are in Brighton that are in Liverpool and we are going to play first in Brighton. It’s a tough match and we will need every player with 100 per cent focus to do everything on the pitch to win.

‘I was speaking with Koscielny about the possibility of playing against Burnley and he said ‘‘not today’’ because he was very tired after two matches in a week, so I decided for him not to be with the group. He said, “I’m not Matteo Guendouzi, Matteo is 19 and I’m 33!”.’