Unai Emery explains how he dealt with the Arsenal players at half-time in their north London derby at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
The Gunners ran out 4-2 winners in the Premier League with three second-half goals turning the match on its head after Tottenham had gone into the break leading.
Emery replaced Alex Iwobi and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at the interval Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette, while he remained calm and confident in the dressing room.
“First, it was about being calm,” Emery told reporters.
“We changed small details but what’s been most important for me at half-time is to be calm, to give them confidence, because maybe yesterday we were 1-0 up and then we finished the half 2-1 down. Give them confidence on the best moments in the first half, to repeat that in the second half.
“Change something special – I changed two players at half-time, but not because Iwobi and Mkhitaryan were doing badly, but because we needed to change and push with different players.
For sticking with us when we needed you most, for the electric atmosphere you created throughout, for the noise you made after all our goals, and for being such brilliant supporters of our club, @UnaiEmery_ would like to say… pic.twitter.com/sPSUpF8k3V
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) December 2, 2018
“I explained yesterday that Aaron has experience in derbies like yesterday, and the second was that I thought we could do better with players with the capacity to score against them.”