Arsenal: Manchester City show where Unai Emery went wrong

Unai Emery took charge of his first competitive Arsenal game on Sunday. His opponents, Manchester City, showed where he went wrong: pace out wide.

It was never going to be easy, facing the champions. Even a weakened Manchester City side is better than most that the Premier League has to offer. And so it proved, on a bright and serene Sunday afternoon at the Emirates stadium, a steady and grounded hope rippling through the stanchions. Arsenal were outmatched. Substantially so.

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And there was a clear distinction between the two teams that was evident in their respective set-ups, style of play and potency in attack: speed. Specifically, speed in the wide positions.

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City started with Riyad Mahrez on the right flank and Raheem Sterling on the left flank. In support of them was two barnstorming full backs, Kyle Walker and Benjamin Mendy, the latter of which recorded two assists. Emery clearly wanted his Arsenal team to be narrow, congesting the space through the middle of the pitch. But in doing so, they conceded the wide spaces which City used to great effect.

Contrast that to the attacking players that Unai Emery selected. Mesut Ozil played on the right wing with Henrikh Mkhitaryan opposite of him on the left. Neither are slow players, but they do like to start centrally and drift throughout the pitch, rather than being disciplined and stretching the opposing defence horizontally. That, I believe, is not their fault. It looked like the instruction of Emery, not the individual decisions of the players. But it was an issue.

It also highlights a greater problem with this team. There is a severe lack of pace in the wide positions. The very presence of Sterling and Mahrez means that there is more space for City’s central midfielders to work in and for Pep Guardiola’s possession-based play to dictate the pattern of play. Arsenal did not have the same speed-orientated threat in wide areas to impart the same influence on the City midfield and defence.

This is where Emery went wrong. He should have started Alexandre Lacazette through the middle and shifted Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang into the wide-left position that he ended the game in. It may sound snobbish and haughty to say that after the game. Hindsight is 20:20 vision, as they say. But this is something that City benefitted from last season and was a concern of mine heading into the year.

Ozil and Mkhitaryan were largely ineffective in this game. They found it difficult to seek out space for themselves, they struggled to ever get in behind the City defence, and chances were extremely hard to come by for the attack as a whole. Admittedly, City are an excellent team and being critical of Emery in his first game against one of the best teams in Premier League history is harsh. But the lack of pace out wide is an issue that could haunt this team time and time again this season.

It remains to be seen how Emery will set up in future matches. We will find out when Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge on Saturday. But I hope that he learned the lesson that City taught here. It could be instrumental for the year ahead.