Unai Emery And His Squad Just Refuse To Learn A Lesson

Two games, two tests, zero points. Failure! That sums up the Arsenal display in Unai Emery’s first two games in charge. The Arsenal head coach set an unwanted record of being the first boss to lose two successive league games at the start of the season since caretaker manager, Steve Burtenshaw lost three consecutive games in 1986.

Unai Emery’s team selection was all the more baffling. Having lost the first game of the season against City, one would have expected him to have learned. He didn’t! Granit Xhaka, who struggled badly against Pep Guardiola’s men, was again preferred to Lucas Torreira. That was a mistake. The second game made it even clearer that Xhaka is not tailor-made for Arsenal’s new style. He is infuriatingly sluggish and too immobile to fit into the high energy, pressing game. In the game against City, he was culpable of losing more possession than anyone else on the pitch. Why Unai Emery chose to retain him for this game remains a mystery.

Another thing that is turning into an embarrassment for the Spanish coach is his insistence to play Petr Cech instead of Bernd Leno. Cech is clearly uncomfortable with the new style where he is required to pass it short to his defenders or midfielders. I don’t know if it is a case of the coach having too much respect for the veteran keeper, but the Czech is not up to the task. He was not at fault for any of the goals Chelsea scored. In fact, he did well to keep Arsenal in the game, making eight smart saves. But for a keeper of his experience, being asked to retake goal kicks because they failed to go into play is an embarrassment!

He should surely have known better. As they say, ‘You can’t teach an old dog new tricks’, at 36, Cech is not going to learn new things overnight and, as Chelsea did, many teams will target him and cause massive problems. Cech was part of the problems Arsenal had last season. He made more errors than any other keeper in the league.

In Leno, Arsenal bought a genuinely talented keeper, more adept at playing with his feet than the Czech. He is ten years Cech’s junior and therefore more agile, which makes him a better fit. He should therefore be the man between the sticks. Chelsea made the decision to play Thibaut Courtois in spite of Cech’s experience when he was at the club. That was not because the Belgian was the better of the two per say, but because the Blues saw Courtois as the future. Leno is the future. He must be backed by his manager because he is the better fit for the way Unai Emery wants his team to play.

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