Emery tells jittery Cech to learn fast

UNAI EMERY insisted Petr Cech can reinvent his game to become a ball-playing goalkeeper after the Arsenal No 1 suffered more jitters against Cardiff. Emery expects his 36-year-old keeper to be assured in possession so Arsenal can build play from the back, but Cech demonstrated anxiety in the defeat by Manchester City and victory over West Ham — and his errors were nearly costly here. Arsenal have £20million summer signing Bernd Leno waiting in the wings, but Emery said: ‘For me, each game is progress. Petr has experience, he is intelligent, he is doing it how we want in building up our work on the pitch. It is very important for me to continue doing this and improving. ‘If you play long balls every time, you lose your personality and you lose moments on the pitch. We take a little risk. When you break this risk, and break through their pressing, you can find the space for attacking positions. It is clear you can make a mistake, but we need to continue with this personality.’ Cardiff manager Neil Warnock revealed afterwards that he had asked his players to pressurise and unsettle Cech. ‘We had a lot of plans that came off,’ Warnock said. ‘That enabled us to get the crowd going. It gave us the confidence to get further forward.’ Warnock joked he would not ask his own goalkeeper Neil Etheridge to become a sweeper-keeper. ‘To nutmeg somebody?’ he said, laughing. ‘That will be the next thing. The Liverpool guy (Alisson) is that confident! The chip he did last week… Etheridge would fall over if he did that. We don’t get into that here.’ Arsenal thrilled in attack. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette scored stunning goals on their first start together this season and Shkodran Mustafi opened the scoring with a powerful header. Yet Warnock claimed Emery’s team were similar to those Arsene Wenger sent out. ‘There’s not a lot of difference,’ he said. ‘I used to get in Arsene’s face as well. Nothing changes. At my age I just want to enjoy watching the team. I said to the fourth official on 75 minutes, “Great game, this”. ‘Football is too negative at times. I can’t remember how many times I had my head in my hands. We had a lot of chances. ‘Absolutely. I have the hardest job in the Premier League. I’d like to see some of them managing this.’