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Unai Emery discusses the challenge Arsenal face at Newcastle United on Saturday

6 years ago
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After Arsenal fans hounded Arsene Wenger out of the cub, all eyes are on Unai Emery.

Replacing a manager who was part of the fixtures and fittings, the new Arsenal boss kicked off with two defeats.

The Arsenal supporters already getting restless.

Victories over West Ham and Cardiff have settled the natives temporarily but a third defeat in five matches would make things interesting.

Newcastle finally got a first PL home win in 12 years against Arsenal on 15 April 2018, maybe the final straw for Arsene Wenger…who announced he was at last departing the club in the immediate aftermath of the 2-1 loss.

An interesting game for Rafa Benitez, taking on a manager who found relative success with Valencia a few years after Rafa had moved on to Liverpool, them thee Europa League triumphs helping Unai Emery into the PSG job.

Not exactly PSG level transfer money to spend for Emery but yet again the Benitez bargain side will have to raise their game against their moneyed opposition.

Unai Emery pre- Newcastle press conference as reported by official Arsenal site:

The challenge of facing Newcastle United:

“Firstly we need to win and I think it is very important that in the last match (at Cardiff) we won.

“Our aim away at Newcastle on Saturday is to keep improving things and continue to create our idea, build up our spirit on the pitch, individually and collectively, and it is clear this process is one process.

“Saturday is another step we can do, it will be difficult but I want to continue [to show] our personality on the pitch and impose this personality on the opposition and to find the win.”

International break:

“Today, the training in the afternoon is the last session. We are going to work with four players. They played on Tuesday, it is Xhaka, Lichtsteiner, Welbeck and Sokratis and I want and I hope that they hope that they come back well and prepare for the match in Newcastle.”

Relationship with Ozil…

“[We get on] very well. Here for me it isn’t for a lot of the time speaking about what people are telling us. I have a very good relationship with Mesut and professionally I push him for improvements to give us the best in his qualities and performances.

“This is the moment to say to you that I have a good relationship with Mesut…we are continuing our process with our positive things and our work.”

On Aubameyang and Lacazette playing together or as substitutes:

“It’s a process to know the combination on the pitch, with different players but I need and I want to start in the level, 11 players with good performances and also, we need in the balance of players, when the team needs to work in the pitch to help the team to find the win, to stay with the performance.

“The reason is that I am very happy with the last two victories in the Premier League and also with the performances and I want to push every player to be okay to help the team if for one minute, 30 minutes or half time or 90 minutes.”

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