Arsenal legend Tony Adams has blasted new manager Unai Emery after his side’s 2-0 home defeat against Manchester City on Sunday.
Emery took charge of his first competitive match in the Premier League but his side failed to produce a good performance and eventually succumbed to Pep Guardiola’s reigning champions on home soil.
Former Arsenal and England defender Adams spoke out after the game in anger towards the ex-Paris Saint-Germain coach, taking aim at his tactical awareness and his chosen starting eleven, which saw new summer signings Bernd Leno, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Lucas Torreira start from the bench.
Adams told talkSPORT: “It was the same kind of performance. I was a little bit deflated and disappointed.
“Coming from Arsene who always played open attacking football, I really wanted the new manager to come in there and tighten things up.
“For the last 10 years now – [we’ve been] leaking goals, soft away from home.
“I wanted him to put his new goalkeeper [Bernd Leno] in, work with his back four, have two screening central-midfield players, and keep a clean sheet.
“It was crying out for it. But I didn’t see that. I thought he got a lot of selections wrong.
“His three best players were his subs [Alexandre Lacazette, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Lucas Torreira]. I don’t know why he didn’t start with them.”
Arsenal’s start to the Premier League season doesn’t get any easier with their next fixture coming up against fellow Londoners Chelsea at Stamford Bridge this weekend.
Cech: We’re Better Than Chelsea
Petr Cech insists he likes working under new boss Unai Emery despite criticism of his performance against Manchester City.
The Arsenal stopper endured a difficult afternoon at the Emirates as Arsenal were comfortably beaten by champions Manchester City 2-0.
The ‘keeper misplaced several passes during the game and almost scored a disastrous own goal when trying to pass across his box to Shkodran Mustafi only to see the ball roll narrowly past the post.
That incident prompted a clash on Twitter between Cech and Bayer Leverkusen, the former club of Arsenal’s new goalkeeper Bernd Leno, with the Bundesliga club suggesting that the German international might be the better option between the sticks for Emery’s gameplan.
However, the former Chelsea stopper insists that he has enjoyed playing under Unai Emery so far and is happy to play the ball out from the back in order to create attacks from deep.
“I have to say that I enjoy it because I played under different managers with different styles and over most of my career I was always asked to play long, so this is a pleasant change for me,” said Cech.
“It will be very useful when you want to beat a team who controls the game through possession.
“You need to create the superiority in the back when you build up and obviously today they are very used to playing a high press and they did it very well.
“At times they put us under pressure but I think we did pretty well over the course of the game.”
Cech thinks that it is only a matter of time before the Gunners adapt to the new style implemented by Emery and asked the fans to show patience while the team adjust.
“I think they have to understand that when you start building a new team with a new manager and a completely new way it may take time,” he said.
“But I think we have been doing really well and we need to adjust a few things but I think we are on a good way.
“Obviously, today we faced probably the biggest favourite to win the title, next week we have another big game but we will be better prepared because we have this game behind us.
“I believe we pushed them (City) more than Chelsea did in the Community Shield.”
Arsenal face another difficult game next weekend when they travel across the capital to take on Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea.