EPL: Arsenal 0-2 Manchester City

Yesterday, in their first game of the new Premier League season, Arsenal lost 2-0 to last year's Champions Manchester City. Unai Emery, the Gunners' new head coach since Arsene Wenger left the club in May after a 22 year reign, has been given a real baptism of fire.

His side went 1-0 down after 14 minutes when Raheem Sterling dribbled past Bellerin and the young debutant midfielder Matteo Guendouzi to shoot powerfully from just outside the box, beating Petr Cech. Emery's life in the Premier League was not starting well. Gooners had already questioned his team selection, with the Spaniard choosing to start Cech over Leno- a newly signed goalkeeper who arguably would have been better suited to playing with the ball at his feet, Xhaka over our new defensive midfielder Lucas Torreira, and playing in a 4-3-3 formation with Ozil on the wing. Oh, and he benched Alexandre Lacazette, whose link up play with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang looked great in pre-season and towards the end of last season.

Lacazette was finally brought on in the 54th minute in place of a poor Aaron Ramsey. I say finally, but a substitution before the 70th minute has been a rare occurrence in recent years. Emery switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation, playing Aubameyang on the left wing, Ozil as the number 10 and Micki on the right, with Lacazette up front.

The Frenchman immediately made an impact. Aubameyang looked more free and set up Lacazette to almost score a half volley just a minute after coming onto the field.





However, just as Arsenal looked on the front foot, they faltered. Guendouzi, who had coped pretty well on his debut so far, missed the ball to allow Aguero in one-on-one with Cech. Remarkably, the Argentine was not his usual clinical self and Cech saved his shot well. Not that it mattered. No sooner had our number 1 stopped a goal, City surged forward to score a second. Benjamin Mendy sprinted into the box to cross to Bernardo Silva who smashed the ball, and this time Cech was helpless. What a sucker punch. Our hopes of a comeback faded, not even Torreira replacing Xhaka in the 70th minute helped. It's telling that the Swiss midfielder came off rather than the inexperienced Guendouzi, it shows 1. how ineffective Xhaka was and 2. how highly Emery rates Matteo. Then again, Xhaka was one of many Gunners who massively under-performed yesterday, so he should still be given a chance to improve under a new coaching style.





Matteo Guendouzi had a promising debut, considering he's 19 and

was battling a host of world class players





And that's what I'd take from this match; Arsenal were made to look sub-par against a team that are at the top of their game, but we shouldn't judge them too harshly for it. Emery has clearly drilled into the players' minds that he wants them to work the ball out from the back and shown them the style of play he expects this season. Yes, it did not work for the majority of the game, but not everything will click over the space of a month or so of training. We need to give it time and I think we could see the team blossom. I'm obviously not an expert of the game, but I could see the midfielders weren't really giving the defenders options when they were on the ball so it kept on going back to Cech. This almost resulted in a horrific own goal when Petr tried to pass to Bellerin, instead ending up spooning it past his own goal post. Luckily it was just outside so it only ended up being a corner.





Petr Cech almost scored an own goal, but he made some excellent saves

Hopefully over the next few months we'll see Emery's style of play start to click, to be honest I'm just happy that he's got a clear plan he wants to implement here. Whilst he made some Wenger-esque lineup decisions, these are going to happen. It could be weeks before he discovers his strongest lineup and who works well with who, although I think it's clear we need to start Lacazette and Aubameyang together. In terms of the Cech vs Leno debate, Petr is not as good with his feet and distributing to the defenders, but he made some really good saves yesterday so maybe he deserves to start against Chelsea? Then again, what's the point of signing a goalkeeper that is able to play in the style you want if you're not going to start him in the important games?





Emery has a lot to think about before facing Chelsea on Saturday

We were very poor away from home last season, especially against the top 6, hence Saturday's match versus Chelsea at Stamford Bridge is going to be almost as big a test as City were. I think it's going to be at least more of an indicator of our progress so far under Emery. He has some big decisions to make over the next week, but as I've stated previously, I'm with him all the way. Let's all get behind the team, show our support and see what happens! COME ON YOU GUNNERS!



