Report: Why Unai Emery makes Arsenal play defensively in some matches

Arsenal has in the last decade been well-known for being an attacking team that plays beautiful football and always entertains its fans but the trophies were the only thing missing to always keep the supporters happy. The gunners were coached by Arsene Wenger for two decades and he is considered to have changed English football.

The gunners appointed Unai Emery as Arsene Wenger’s succesor and in his first press conference, he said that he wouldn’t change Arsenal’s tradition style of play but confirmed that he wanted his team to always press the opponents until they get back the ball back. The gunners have indeed played some beautiful football under Unai Emery, for example, their win against Leicester City which got everyone excited.

But things have changed in December and Unai Emery has been accused by some Arsenal fans on social networks of making the gunners play defensively in their last five matches yet they have always been an attacking side. So let’s take a look at Arsenal’s last three matches.

Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal

The gunners didn’t actually play defensively in this match because they would have done much better if they did because some of Liverpool’s goals came from failed Arsenal attacks or forward passes. Looking at the lineup that played this game, you can actually see that Unai Emery wanted his team to attack even though he had left out Alexandre Lacazette on the bench.

Brighton & Hove Albion 1 Vs 1 Arsenal

Unai Emery really tried to put up a defensive game against this bottom table team and it’s surprising why the Arsenal coach would make this decision yet he knows that Brighton & Hove Albion always fight to the end. The gunners went ahead thanks to Aubameyang but then reverted to defending, one can’t imagine the back passes which the gunners made before the hosts equalised.

The lineup that faced Brighton had three central midfielders; Matteo Guendouzi, Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka so tells you how Unai Emery wanted to play this game defensively but failed hence the gunners dropping two points.

Arsenal 3-1 Burnley

Most of the Arsenal fans must have enjoyed this game because their team managed to get three goals and played great football even though they did concede once because of poor defending.

Even though Unai Emery started Granit Xhaka, Mohamed Elneny and Matteo Guendouzi at the same time, the gunners looked lively in attack and weren’t just trying to keep the ball as witnessed in the Brighton match.

So this analysis shows that Unai Emery changes/decisions as per their next opponent and sometimes he gets it right while other times, it fails.