Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

News

Unai Emery hoping for not too many empty seats and ‘A very big atmosphere’ against Newcastle United

5 years ago
Share

Unai Emery has had a mixed reception since taking over at Arsenal.

The club are still nowhere near challenging for the title and on their Premier League travels have only beaten Bournemouth and Newcastle away from home, of those clubs outside the bottom three.

However, at The Emirates it is a different matter.

Losing at home to Manchester City on the opening day, the Gunners haven’t lost at home in the league in over seven months.

The only other points dropped were in draws at home against Liverpool and Wolves in November, with nine PL wins in a row now at their stadium.

Out of a possible 48 points, Arsenal have picked up 41 at home.

There are so many positives about Arsenal as a club and yet despite their incredible home form, thousands of empty seats face the TV cameras, as so many Arsenal ‘fans’ who have paid some of the top prices, simply don’t bother going to many of the games.

Unai Emery hopes that ‘Against Newcastle, I think with a very big atmosphere we can be strong’, but a Monday night game on TV against a bottom half Newcastle United and nowhere near challenging the top two clubs, it remains to be seen how many Arsenal fans do turn up.

Not that Arsenal have needed much help from their fans with this stunning home form.

Unai Emery is keen to build up the opposition…’I know Monday’s match is going to be very difficult. Newcastle are in a good moment. They have a lot of good players and good organisation. The coach (Rafa Benitez) has a lot of experience and he is very competitive, I know that.’

However, if Rafa’s team gets anything on Monday night it would be a top result.

Unai Emery:

“I know Monday’s match is going to be very difficult.

Newcastle are in a good moment.

“They have a lot of good players and good organisation.

“The coach (Rafa Benitez) has a lot of experience and he is very competitive, I know that.

“The last matches they (Newcastle) are playing, they are playing with big confidence, very strong defensively and very competitive.

“My focus is on how we can break their defensive positions and also a big performance for us to take a win.

“We are playing different systems with different players…I have a lot of confidence in our players.

“I know Monday’s game is giving us a big challenge against them (Newcastle)

“I know we are strong at home but we need to continue working like we are doing…to keep moving forward with a big ambition and big atmosphere in our stadium.

“Every match is a big challenge for us.

“We are coming back after this international break and after our trip away to Dubai, the most important thing is to speak about Newcastle.

“We started this morning.

“We need and must be in the same spirit to play against Newcastle, I think with a very big atmosphere we can be strong.”

“We trained this morning and some players were rested, giving them one day more to train with us tomorrow – Aaron Ramsey, Dinos Mavropanos, but hey can be ready for Monday.

“(Granit) Xhaka also rested today, we are going to wait tomorrow and Sunday but the first previews from the doctor are that he can progress and be ready for Monday.”

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks