The Tale Of Two Halves For Arsenal That Raises Some Worrying Questions About Unai Emery

The Tale Of Two Halves For Arsenal That Raises Some Worrying Questions About Unai Emery

One of the major concerns for manager Unai Emery is that it seems that rather than simply being inconsistent this season, Arsenal’s performances are now inconsistent within individual matches as well.

Although they were by no means great in the first half against Watford last week, the shocking drop off in the second half was alarming. In another post, we talked about the lack of pressing, poor passing and lack of desire to retrieve the ball in the second period at Vicarage Road.


In contrast against Aston Villa, the Gunners appeared to lack any urgency in the first half, before rallying after going down to ten men. In the first 45 minutes, they managed just 22 attacks (as well as 3 corners) in total with six of them leading to shots. After the interval, they had 17 attacks (as well as six corners and two free-kicks) which led to 12 shots on goal.

Arsenal effectively doubled their input with one less player than their opponents. It is right to hail the character of the team and it shows they are firmly behind the manager, but the lack of consistency between halves is still a major worry.

How can we explain the huge differences in performance level? We will need to see more matches before we can have a definitive answer but my theory is that it could be down to Emery’s style of management.

The Spaniard is very pragmatic and it is hard to discern a style of play, unlike his fellow countryman Pep Guardiola. When you have a set style, you essentially have a way of playing to fall back on if you are not performing well.

When performances aren’t what you want to be under a manager like Emery, there can be mixed signals with the Spaniard trying to make drastic changes in order to find improvements.

It’s not necessarily always when things are going badly either. The ill-judged diamond formation against Liverpool, for example, is the sign of a coach being too clever for his own good. Chopping and changing how you play based on your opponents can have its benefits but it also has its pitfalls.

Bukayo Saka is a case in point. A really talented young player who Emery should be praised for giving a chance in recent games, but even he admitted recently that he has been left confused by Emery’s instructions, leading his assistant Freddie Ljungberg having to help out:

“Sometimes when I don’t understand, when the coach is trying to communicate with me, I have a better communication with Freddie sometimes, he speaks better English.”

“Freddie’s information, he’s been a player at this level before, and it’s vital for me because I play in the same position and he’s been a big part in my progress.”

It may be reading too much into one quote as young players may need extra guidance to understand what’s being asked of them, but it is concerning that it appears Emery’s instructions are not always well understood, even by his own players.

A pragmatic style with no overarching philosophy can lead to this, and inevitability that will lead to inconsistent performances, and contrasting halves of football, which we have seen over the last two games.

David Tully

David Tully

David has worked as a football reporter for the last fifteen years. Having started as an intern at Snack Media, he then went on to become a freelancer, working on various different sites. At the start of 2023, he took up his current role as content writer for National World's Football News Network.