Month: May 2019

Arsenal manager Unai Emery has revealed his pleasure after the Gunners progressed to the semi-final stage of the Europa League at Napoli’s expense. The north London side were the better team across both legs and they eventually secured a 3-0 aggregate win to reach the last four of the competition for the second year running.

Speaking after the game, Emery was impressed with the commitment from the team who restricted Napoli from finding the scoresheet across both legs, he said: “I am proud of the players. We started very well. The first half was good because after we scored we continued not to give them opportunities. We defended well in the second half. In the two matches, we can be happy to win against Napoli.”

Arsenal manager Unai Emery has revealed his pleasure after the Gunners progressed to the semi-final stage of the Europa League at Napoli’s expense. The north London side were the better team across both legs and they eventually secured a 3-0 aggregate win to reach the last four of the competition for the second year running.

Speaking after the game, Emery was impressed with the commitment from the team who restricted Napoli from finding the scoresheet across both legs, he said: “I am proud of the players. We started very well. The first half was good because after we scored we continued not to give them opportunities. We defended well in the second half. In the two matches, we can be happy to win against Napoli.”

Meanwhile, the Spanish tactician confirmed the worst possible news on Aaron Ramsey, who could potentially miss the rest of the season with a hamstring problem. When asked about the Welshman, he added: “It is a muscular injury. Normally it will be some weeks out for him. But we have other players and we can find a performance and rotate players.”

“Ramsey has been the standout performer for the Gunners over the past few months and the latest injury setback may mean that he has played his final game in the club’s shirt“. The Wales international has already finalised a pre-contract agreement to join Juventus when his Gunners deal expires during the summer and “it remains to be“ seen whether he can make a final bow in the club’s jersey.

Arsenal will shift their attention to the Premier League for the weekend where they face Crystal Palace at the Emirates Stadium. The north London side are currently occupying the fourth position on the table on goal difference over Chelsea, but they have the chance to move up to third, should Tottenham Hotspur drop points against Manchester City during the same gameweek.

Unai Emery didn’t put the blame of the defeat against Crystal Palace on Shokdran Mustafi whose schoolboy error in the second half of the game resulted in the Gunners conceding a vital goal which proved to be the difference at the end as they lost by a margin of just one goal to a comparatively far weaker opponent.

And this was not the first time in the season that Mustafi made an error like that. His performance in the heart of defense over the course of the season has not helped Arsenal much and once again, the team had to pay for his recklessness.

Unai Emery didn’t put the blame of the defeat against Crystal Palace on Shokdran Mustafi whose schoolboy error in the second half of the game resulted in the Gunners conceding a vital goal which proved to be the difference at the end as they lost by a margin of just one goal to a comparatively far weaker opponent.

And this was not the first time in the season that Mustafi made an error like that. His performance in the heart of defense over the course of the season has not helped Arsenal much and once again, the team had to pay for his recklessness.

Although it was clear that Mustafi’s error was a big reason why Arsenal couldn’t get a point on the night, the manager chose not to be critical of the 27-year old.

According to Emery, “it was of course a massive game as three points here could have gone a long way in helping Arsenal end the Premiership season“ in top 4 of the standings and this loss is now going to hurt their chances and it’s indeed a matter of frustration, but the good thing is that their fate is still up to them and they don’t have to depend on the results of the other teams. As far as tonight is concerned, he is not going to pick a particular person and try and suggest that he is the one “responsible for this result“. He would prefer talking about the mistakes in a general way rather than being particular about anyone.

“I think we can speak about them all generally and not focus on individual issues.” Emery was quoted saying by talkSPORT.

The Gunners presently have 66 points out of the 34 games they have played.