Arsenal: Tony Adams needs to take a chill pill

Tony Adams has strongly criticised Unai Emery’s preseason work and selections for Sunday’s Manchester City match. The former Arsenal defender needs to take a chill pill.

Manchester City were much the better team when they came to the Emirates to provide Unai Emery with the opposition for his first competitive match as this new Arsenal era gets underway. That was to be expected. They are the best team in the history of the Premier League. But such is the volatile, tribalistic modern world of football, that has not stopped the criticism from coming.

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And for Emery, he must face criticism, after just one game in charge, from a club legend and the only player to win a Premier League title as captain in three different decades, Tony Adams.

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Speaking on TalkSport, Adams, when asked to summarise Sunday’s 2-0 loss, was very critical of the work of Emery, questioning both his team selection on the day and the work that he has conducted during the preseason. This is what he had to say:

"“It was the same kind of performance. I was a little bit deflated and disappointed. I wanted him to put his new goalkeeper in, work with his back four, have two screening central-midfield players, and keep a clean sheet <…> It was crying out for it. But I didn’t see that. I thought he got a lot of selections wrong. His three best players were his subs [Alexandre Lacazette, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Lucas Torreira]. I don’t know why he didn’t start with them. I can’t see it. I don’t know what he’s been doing for the last six weeks. <…> He’s been rotating all of his players and giving them all a game. They’ve got some good results but it’s pre-season. You’ve had six weeks of pre-season – go on, get on with it!”"

Now, I do agree with some of the points that Adams makes. The selection of Petr Cech over Bernd Leno was a curious one. I would have liked to have seen Lucas Torreira start ahead of Granit Xhaka. Alexandre Lacazette also, in my opinion, deserved a starting role. But Adams is not very forgiving in his comment here.

First and foremost, this was better than past performances against the top Premier League clubs. It wasn’t perfect, but there was a greater defensive structure, more discipline in the midfield, and a clear defensive plan implemented, even if the execution was not always spot on.

Secondly, City are one of the best teams on the planet. They can dismantle even the best-laid plans from the most tactically astute managers in the world. Judging Emery’s work on the first day of the season against a team as brilliant as City is hardly fair.

And finally, Adams shows little patience. Emery may have had a preseason to work with his players, but that is hardly enough to ready them to face Man. City. I am sure there are still many positions that he would like to see invested in before he is happy with the squad. One summer was never going to be enough.

Was the performance and result a little disappointing? Perhaps. But is it worthy of the heavy criticism that Adams was willing to dish out? Absolutely not. He just needs to take a chill pill.