Emery Reveals Why He Decided To Take Off Arsenal Star In Watford Draw

Emery Reveals Why He Decided To Take Off Arsenal Star In Watford Draw

Arsenal manager Unai Emery has said that he was looking to freshen things up in the second half against Watford when he decided to substitute Dani Ceballos.

The Gunners boss explained it was a warm day and he believed he needed more energy on the pitch to cope with the opposition both on and off the ball:


“Today it was very, very hot. We needed in the second half, some fresh players. We were struggling second half and I was thinking how we can improve with three players, fresh players, for give us more energy and give us also more capacity to be strong physically and tactically and also technically.”

Ceballos was replaced on the hour mark by Joe Willock, but the decision to replace a number of senior players with youngsters after the interval has left many pundits questioning Emery’s decision making.

Arsenal were on the back foot in the second 45 minutes and struggled to handle a Watford side that were determined to get back into the game.

However, with both Ceballos and Mesut Ozil off the pitch, the Gunners failed to get a grip on proceedings, and some believe they were lucky to even get a point despite heading into the break 2-0 up.