Former Premier League manager Sam Allardyce has criticised Unai Emery for his tactics on Arsenal’s opening game of the season against Manchester City.

The Gunners slumped to a 2-0 defeat against he champions on Sunday, and looked unconvincing in a game that was dominated by City.

Emery’s tactics were clear for all to see, playing out from the back in an attempt to keep possession and build up attacks from their own half.

But this was a costly mistake from the manager, as Arsenal didn’t look at all comfortable in possession and often lost the ball in key areas.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech often chose to pass the ball to a defender from a goal kick instead of hitting it into the centre of the pitch, something that brought great criticism onto the Czech stopper.

Speaking on the Sports Breakfast on Monday, Allardyce questioned Emery’s approach to the game, saying he can’t understand why teams would play such tactics.

“It is the manager’s fault,” said Allardyce.

“Don’t ask somebody to do against Man City what you shouldn’t do. You shouldn’t play out like that against Manchester City.

“What do Manchester City do? They press, press, press so why do you try and play out when they press, press, press?

“Even the Arsenal crowd cheered when he [Cech] dropped one in the opposition’s half.

“We are getting obsessed with this stupid ‘let’s play out from the back, split the centre halves either side of the 18-yard box and go and play from there’… it’s utter rubbish to play like that all of the time.

“When you’re the best at it [like City] then you can do it.”
[Quotes via TalkSPORT]

It seems as if a lot of people are already damning the Gunners and Emery, after just one game into the new season. It’s easy to forget that it will take time for Emery’s tactics to settle in, and that Arsenal were playing the best team in the country.