Arsenal: Unai Emery has some serious questions to answer

Arsenal put in a terrible performance despite a 3-2 victory over Vitoria SC on Thursday night. Like with every week, Unai Emery has some serious questions to answer.

The jury was out on Unai Emery prior to his second season at the Arsenal helm. There were positive moments during his first year. He instilled a resolve and winning mentality within the squad. There was a greater energy and impetus to the team’s play. A Europa League final appearance and just missing out on the top four is not terrible.

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However, there were some major concerns also. What was the identity he was instilling? Why was the football becoming increasingly more odious and difficult to watch? Were the wrong players being trusted in the wrong positions? All of these worries left some fans betwixt and between when it came to trusting Emery and his process.

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And thus far in his second season, these same weaknesses have come to roost. Arsenal’s attacking football has diminished drastically, their defensive vulnerabilities still persist, while the ‘protagonists’ and ‘pressing’ philosophies that Emery extolled when he first arrived have not yet truly arrived. The identity is still lacking.

The performances have toiled as a result. Arsenal still have not won a game by more than one goal, have not really deserved to win a game all season, and are relying on the individual brilliance of a select few to repeatedly bail them out, the latest of which is Nicolas Pepe and his magical left boot.

It has left Emery facing a number of rather pertinent and focused questions. And after an impassioned response of his tenure earlier this week, in his post-match press conference after Thursday night’s fortunate 3-2 victory over Vitoria SC, Emery again broke down his side’s performance:

"“Over 90 minutes, we struggled more in the first half than we wanted. We lost a lot of balls in midfield and gave them chances in the transition to score and to start winning the game.  In the second match [half], I think we controlled it better. We created chances but our attack was playing more with their emotion and heart tonight than with control, or with shape on the pitch. We weren’t as organised in the attack <…> There are more positive things than negatives, but I want to take the positive things tonight for the next matches and the next match in this competition.”"

There are slight issues I have with this response. There are not ‘more positive things than negatives’ and the team barely created any chances in the second half, nevermind how they created them. But his overall point makes sense: Arsenal did not play very well because they were disorganised, especially in the midfield. What Emery fails to recognise, however, is that he is the cause of that disorganisation.

Playing Lucas Torreira as a ‘number 10’. Moving Joe Willock from a ‘number 10’ one match to an anchoring midfield role the next — he was hauled off at half-time in both games. Using a 4-3-3, then a 4-4-2 diamond and then a flat 4-4-2, all in the space of about 20 minutes. By half-time, I still did not know what formation Arsenal were meant to be using. This was a mess.

The questions for Emery and his era, then, have not subsided after Thursday’s victory. If anything, they have only intensified. The jury, for now, is still out. But they are reaching a verdict and it is not a positive one for Emery.