Unai Emery studied our team carefully before he was appointed as head coach in May. And his first aim? To make us compete again.
Three FA Cups in four seasons has brought silverware back to the Emirates in recent times, but back-to-back finishes outside the top four meant there was plenty of room for improvement in the Premier League.
A run of 11 straight wins is compelling evidence that we have stepped up in class and, while there’s a long way to go this season, Unai is pleased with the progress we’ve made.
“I think the first thing we spoke about when I arrived here was to improve our competitiveness, both individually and collectively as a team,” he said.
“We are doing that. Step by step, I think the team is more competitive and we are not giving the opposition a lot of chances to score easy goals.
“At the moment, we are conceding a lot more than we want to but, in the last matches, we are learning to control games better, little by little. Also, we are not losing.
“The most important thing is that these players and this team, like over the last few years, have this combination of quality and competitiveness. Then we can finish with a lot of players in the opposition box.
“This is the balance between being more competitive and not losing our identity and style. We also need to keep that identity in this team.”
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