SARRI v SORRY
While the new manager has got Chelsea playing fantastic football.. Emery is already struggling to lift an unbalanced, ageing Arsenal team that looks so unsuited to his style
THEY took it in turns afterwards to say how long it would take to turn things around.
You get the impression it will be a matter of weeks for Maurizio Sarri until Chelsea iron out their faults and the Premier League table already looks promising.
But for Unai Emery, Arsenal had better brace themselves for a much longer project, as modern managers like to call it. Older ones might describe it as a huge rebuilding job.
It is going to take a long time, way beyond this season. Arsenal are already six points off the pace, Emery is trying to impose his philosophy on a group of players who appear illsuited to his style and the familiar defensive failings are still there.
There are positives, of course. Matteo Guendouzi (circle) looks promising, Emery is not afraid to rattle a few egos after substituting Mesut Ozil and Granit Xhaka and the fightback from 2-0 down showed real character.
But while Chelsea are playing terrific football and look as if they will be topfour contenders this season, it is hard to see Arsenal improving on the sixth place finish which cost Arsene Wenger his job in May.
Let’s be honest, it is not as if much has changed with Arsenal and while Sarri is ushering in a revolution with top-quality signings, Emery must make do with a horribly unbalanced squad.
Arsenal’s hierarchy can point to a spiralling wage bill as a major handicap to Emery’s rebuilding plans. But they were the ones who signed off big deals for Sokratis, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
They are all ageing players – either 29 or 30 – with no sell-on value while the £350,000-a-week contract for Ozil looks highly questionable after the Arsenal midfielder went AWOL in another big game.
Arsenal have been given a nightmare start after defeats against Chelsea and Manchester City, but you cannot have too much of an inferiority complex if you really do have ambitions of making the top four.
Their high defensive line will be exposed by lesser teams than Chelsea because Sokratis and Shkodran Mustafi do not have the pace to chase back while the midfield did not do enough pressing either. Emery is left with a mountain to climb as it is the first time in 26 years that Arsenal have lost their opening two games of the season. You can only imagine the stick Wenger would be getting if he were still in charge. Next week it is West Ham for Arsenal while Chelsea’s next three games are Newcastle, Bournemouth and Cardiff, which are all eminently winnable. Chelsea also shopped in a different market and Jorginho looks as if he could be one of the best buys of the season. No wonder Emery was keen to draw the positives from another defeat and insisted the players are improving and learning. The Spaniard said: “There are 38 matches in the Premier League and we are going to play every team... our start isn’t easy and we have nil points.
“But we are thinking about the next match and are thinking about work and how tactically we need to improve.
“We can improve more things, but many things are positives we are doing and we are going to continue to do that.
“It is clear the two results are not good, but the quality of spirit is good for the reaction at 2-0 – we created chances to score, that is also positive.
“We need to continue to work on the balance between attacking and defensive moments.
“It is clear that the demand is very high and also that the two first matches are very difficult, but next week against West Ham is also the same.
“We will continue our process with the players, with the young players, also for our system to do better on the pitch. Today against Chelsea we did very good things on the pitch.”
At least Arsenal provided entertainment in a five-goal thriller. Emery’s men could have scored more, Chelsea could have scored six but for Petr Cech and Sarri’s football will be terrific to watch.
But having gone 2-0 down to goals from Pedro and Alvaro Morata before levelling through Mkhitaryan and Alex Iwobi, only to lose nine minutes from time to a Marcos Alonso goal, there will be little comfort in defeat for Emery. Learning is much easier when you are winning.