Arsenal’s manager Unai Emery talked about his team’s performance and two players’ injuries in reflective mood after their draw with Sporting CP on Thursday night in Europa League.
All members of the Arsenal club are together with Danny Welbeck at this moment and he was only one topic of conversation after the team’s Europa League game.
Emery thought that Welbeck’s serious injury was the worst news at night. Welbeck had some chances, working well and having a good match. “You don’t want it to happen but this is our profession.” Emery said, “it was a big injury. When you are playing football, when you are playing in competitive matches, it can happen.”
As for Lichtsteiner’s injury, Emery had to change their idea tactically for the last 25 minutes due to the injury. Eddie Nketiah was considered to be brought on and given a chance, but it was good for Ainsley to play those minutes after Lichtsteiner’s injury because he could take the confidence and the team’s rhythm.
Emery thought Sporting, their opponent, was a very big competitive team. It was not easy on the pitch to make clear chances against Sporting and Arsenal needed to be calm and create chances to score. Arsenal created A lot of chances and could have won the game, but the result was not enough as they are target to be first in the group and still need to keep focus on the next two games.
In this game, Sporting went down to 10 men in the 87th minute because Jeremy Mathieu was sent off for fouling Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the area. The foul on Aubameyang may be a smart challenge from Mathieu as Aubameyang was so fast and could have got a chance to score.
