Emery insists attack is the best form of defence
Perhaps bored senseless from yet another international break, Unai Emery this week raised eyebrows with an illuminating interview with the Spanish newspaper Marca, in which he attempted to pinpoint the exact moment things began to go wrong for Arsene Wenger at Arsenal.
“With time, only technical quality and offensive freedom were taken care of, while losing defensive structure,” he posited. “What I want is to combine both and become more competitive. Arsenal was in a decline. We had to stop this, and begin climbing.”
But identifying a problem is far easier than fixing one. And even despite Emery’s determination to sort
things out at the back, Arsenal’s defence remains shaky. They have conceded only one goal fewer than at this same point last season, despite a fine undefeated run which stretches back to the second weekend of the season.
They are susceptible to the counter-attack. Laurent Koscielny and Nacho Monreal have still not returned to full fitness. And Shkodran Mustafi remains a liability. Emery knows that things need to change if Arsenal are to reclaim their place in the top four, something managing director Vinai Venkatesham recently admitted was a necessity.
“Yes, we need more and we need to get better,” Emery said ahead of tomorrow’s trip to sixth-place Bournemouth, before suggesting that Arsenal’s defensive frailties are a natural consequence of their aggressive, adventurous style of play.
“We need more. Obviously we need to start winning more and we are working on that. And we need to work on our balance, because I like for my team to score a lot. We have the capacity to score with lots of different players and for me this is very important. But in the balance we also need to be better in defensive moments.
“I want to carry on having the attacking moments to score, and to reduce the possibility of chances for the opponents to score against us. But it is not easy. We are working and speaking to do more.”
Not for the first time this season, Emery also stressed that attack can often be the best form of defence, revealing that Arsenal’s Friday morning team meeting was focused on how the side can better defend counter-attacks after losing the ball in advanced positions.
“Tactically, we cannot concede so many chances to the opposition and we must improve in scoring and finding different possibilities with different players,” he added.
“I want, for example, Alex Iwobi to do more or have more chances to score. He can stay in the box in a lot of moments in the 90 minutes, but for that we need also to arrive into the opposition box with different players, with the balance for recovery when we lose the ball. [On Friday] morning we spoke about this at our team meeting.”
Arsenal know victory against Bournemouth will see them close the gap on the Champions League places, with fourth-place Tottenham hosting third-place Chelsea in Saturday’s evening kick-off.
Emery however added that Arsenal have only “sometimes” been playing at a top four level this season, despite their long undefeated run.
“If we want to be in the top four, we need to improve things,” he admitted. “We are improving things. The performances at the moment are not bad, in the last matches. But Sunday is another test. A big test. They are behind us. We need to win to be closer to the top four.”