Arsenal Vs Manchester City: Unai Emery should be criticised

Arsenal were unravelled by an excellent Manchester City on Sunday afternoon. A key part of their problems stemmed from Unai Emery’s tactics. The Spaniard got it wrong.

Manchester City are a very difficult team to set up for. They are the best team that I have ever seen from England. Pep Guardiola is a game-changing manager, completely revolutionising the way the sport is played. And this City team is a key part of his influence on the modern game.

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It was never going to be easy, therefore, for Arsenal to travel to the Etihad Stadium and earn even a point. And Sunday’s 3-1 defeat was painfully predictable. But if there is one thing that helps in preparing for a trip to City, then it is the fact that you know how they will play. The City style does not change.

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The key element of City’s set-up is the dual number-eight roles of Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva, playing in the half-spaces that the wingers open up for them. Their underlapping runs are devastating, their creative passing from the inside channel can rip apart any defence, the spaces that they pick up and receive the ball in are very difficult to keep tabs on. If there is a way to stop City, and I am not sure that there is, then trying to contain Silva and de Bruyne is absolutely integral to it.

Knowing that, the way that Unai Emery set his team up was a little difficult to comprehend. Attempting to utilise a 4-4-2 formation that started deep in Arsenal’s own territory, Emery’s plan was clear: play with a narrow, compact shape that contracted the central spaces and made it difficult for City to play through.

But the width that City attack with, thanks to Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva, on this occasion, pulled the Arsenal full-backs wide. They needed to close them down and could not stick to the narrow shape that Emery wanted to implement. By moving wide, that opened up the space inside that de Bruyne and Silva wanted to exploit. And they did so with devastating effect.

Emery’s system meant that Matteo Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira were totally outmanned in central midfield. And that led to de Bruyne and Silva enjoying great space in dangerous areas, pulling the Arsenal defence apart. But it all stemmed from the shape that Emery started with which allowed City to dictate.

It was no coincidence that Arsenal were able to contain City in the latter half hour or so when Emery shifted to a 4-3-3. Admittedly, this came when the game was in a very different stage, but the point still stands: the two-man central midfield exposed the Gunners to City’s most preferred tactic. Whatever you want to slice it, that is poor management.

I will not kill Emery for this performance. City are in a different league. But that does not mean he should be exempt from criticism. He got it wrong.