Arsenal: Is Unai Emery just Arsene Wenger in disguise?

Arsenal’s new era has begun very similarly to the way Arsene Wenger would have continued. Is it too much to wonder if Emery is actually Wenger?

Seriously guys, defending? For the first 35 minutes of Arsenal game against Chelsea I found myself wondering if Unai Emery was Arsene Wenger in disguise, given the nature of the utterly ridiculous goals we conceded, all the early optimism I had early pre-season is slowly going if not gone.

People can argue that we have played Manchester City and Chelsea, but that’s no excuse for the manner in which we defended. Quite frankly, it was a schoolboy/Sunday league stuff. Now we are starting our third league game on zero points and are only outside the relegation zone on goal difference.

What is it about this club that they don’t realise the value of defending and how a good defence is more important than anything in a team?

You hear players and management talking about the values of Arsenal and how important they are to the club, but the value of defending clearly isn’t one of them. The trend looks like its going to continue under Emery. He looks very much like an Arsene Wenger clone in the fact that he will favour attacking football over anything defensive.

Full credit to the Gunners for coming back to make it 2-2. Teams in previous seasons probably would have crumbled after the first 25 minutes. Not to mention we could have even gone in ahead, such was the craziness of the first half with both Aubemeyang and Mkhitaryan both missing guilt-edged chances.

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But in the second half, we invited Chelsea pressure and tried to shut up shop. For 35 minutes it worked, with players repelling the frequent Chelsea attacks, but as with previous seasons you had a sense a goal was coming.

So it proved when Eden Hazard was allowed too much time to find Marcos Alonso and he himself found it too easy as he stroked home the 3rd goal. It could have been worse as, twice, Petr Cech brilliantly denied Olivier Giroud and that was that, we didn’t really look like equalising.

It goes without saying that changes need to be made before next weeks game. I’m not ready to say start Bernd Leno over Petr Cech, as he made some good saves today, but please Unai Emery needs to start making some good decisions.

Granit Xhaka needs to be dropped, he just cannot defend and against a high-pressing team he is worse than useless. Playing him in the centre with a player of Guendouzi’s inexperience is ridiculous.

Alexandre Lacazette also needs to start. Push Aubemeyang out to the wing and have him feed balls into the area.

A final note, Unai Emery, if he really wants to make a mark, needs to seriously focus on the defensive side of the team. Attack wise, we look fine (very much like under Wenger). But the premiership is getting stronger every season and you need a good balance all over the pitch. A bad result against West Ham next week and the knives really could be out.