Emery: Arsenal won't sit back against Man City

The Gunners coach is hopeful his side can replicate what Newcastle and Crystal Palace have accomplished in recent games

Posted Sunday, February 03, 2019 by Goal.com

Ahead of a crucial clash at Manchester City on Sunday, Arsenal coach Unai Emery has declared he will not sit back and defend against Pep Guardiola's side.

A trip to the Etihad is set to demand quite a lot of the Gunners and Emery in particular, who is yet to taste victory against Guardiola .

City, however, will enter the match on the back of a shock 2-1 loss to Newcastle United and are now five points behind Liverpool in second.

Emery has suggested his side may have to adapt the way they play on Sunday, but insisted they would not sit back and emulate the defensive style Newcastle and Crystal Palace have used to defeat City this season.

“Usually Manchester City, in every match they impose their style,” Emery said.

“You want to impose your style, you want to play with your personality, but sometimes you need adaptation – more or less, it depends on the opposition."

“It is very difficult to break their style and impose yours. When a lot of teams play with a very deep block it’s because they need to play like that and can also have chances to win."

“But usually you can play 10 matches against Manchester City – maybe Newcastle, maybe Crystal Palace, maybe us as well – you can lose 10 times playing the same, or maybe lose seven, draw two and win one.

"But this style can work for you like Newcastle and Crystal Palace won against them."

Now firmly in the post-Arsene Wenger era, the Gunners have shown glimpses of promise this season but now find themselves three points outside the top four.

It was a quiet January transfer window for the club too with Denis Suarez's arrival on loan their only addition - despite Emery's desire to see up to three players signed.

The lack of activity is a signal to the manager that Arsenal must follow the example of Liverpool and Tottenham and look to develop young players.

“The progress from Liverpool is very important progress and now they are the favourites because they have the lead," Emery said.

“Maybe Manchester City is a different example because they bought a very important lot with paying a lot and maybe we can’t do that now like that, but our way is we can also do one way similar to Liverpool, similar to Tottenham.

“Doing more with young players, using well players who can improve with us. And we are doing that. We need time, but also we need to be very demanding of ourselves to do that.”