Unai Emery insists Arsenal are not about to abandon the concept of playing out from the back despite the rocky moments that were a feature of their opening game under new management against Manchester City last weekend.
“We didn’t lose because of our personality, our idea, our style,” Emery said. “We didn’t lose for that. We lost on other things. We can improve on other things, learn for the next match.”
Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge for the second act of this challenging start to the season, with Petr Cech expected to keep his place in goal. With all the attention on how he did not look comfortable with the ball at his feet against a pressing team, his shot stopping on the day was perhaps under-credited. Emery believes the goalkeeping selection is “easy” for this weekend’s challenge and the former Chelsea player is expected to keep his place ahead of the new arrival from Germany, Bernd Leno, who will get game time soon enough when the cup competitions begin, if not before.
“Petr Cech can continue to start the match. I believe in him. But if Bernd starts, I believe in him also,” said Emery.
The Spaniard also explained that he is happy for his goalkeeper to keep his options open rather than to be instructed to look only for a short pass to an outfield player.
“Football is very challenging,” he said. “Goalkeepers can play like a player, to start short with the centre-back or the full-back. It is not compulsory to start each action that way. Maybe if the opposition is doing high pressing against us, then we need also to find another option and to play the ball long. We are training for each situation. I want in each moment to know what is our best action to do in the match. This is our creative style and idea.”
The new head coach is more than aware that Arsenal struggled away from home last season, racking up defeats and struggling for character. He is trying to encourage resilience. “I want us to be competitive for 90 minutes,” he said.