Unai Emery dissected our performance against Bournemouth when he faced the media shortly after our 2-1 win at Vitality Stadium.
Here’s what the head coach said about the result, the talking points and his tactical decisions.
on securing all three points…
The result is very important, but we spoke in the dressing room at half-time after they’d scored and the process is in our mentality also. The result is very important and we went up 1-0, but they scored so we needed to keep calm and continue our control, which is getting better on the pitch.
I think we knew this was a difficult stadium and a difficult team, and they were four points behind us, and it was an important game for them to be near us. I am very happy with how the players and fans supported and pushed us today. The control over the 90 minutes with keeping calm in a lot of moments was very important in this victory.
on returning to winning ways…
Today is 17 matches unbeaten, but in the last three matches we drew and it is not enough for us, for our mind, for our objective - and today, to win, we were speaking during the week about how important it was to win, and that it is very difficult. It was a big moment for us.
We have lots of matches coming, and we are playing teams with the same objective as us. I think the team spirit today and the supporters helped us to feel more strong.
on Ozil starting from the bench…
We thought how we can be better in the match today which is very demanding with the physicality and the intensity - but every player is important. Also today we tried with three centre backs like we’ve done at some stages this season and it’s another possibility for us to improve and find our best performance.
on when he would have brought Ozil on…
It depends how it is coming the match, how it is coming in the 90 minutes, and I decided for another option. In the beginning of the season we were speaking every day about being organised and competitive - and it’s the same today.
on Auba playing in a central role…
Yesterday Lacazette felt a small injury and also we need Aubameyang and Nketiah. Today the most important thing for us is that not only did Aubameyang score for us, he was also working in the 90 minutes. He helped us in all the things, the tactical moments and the defensive moments.
on whether Torreira is injured...
He said to us that he was a little tired and that there was a possibility. He was giving us good balance but also we have to be clever because he played with the national team for two matches and sometimes you need to listen to the player when they sometimes need rest. Matteo is working very well and also I think we need every player. This change was because we need to give him a rest.
on why he played three at the back…
We played like that in pre-season and in Qarabag, and it was an opportunity for us to find our best performance, best system and best combinations. For example today there was Sead Kolasinac and Alex Iwobi which is a very interesting combination. Also when we are pushing with Hector Bellerin wide we need some players for balance. The most important thing for us is finding balance in the defensive moments because we are conceding more goals than we want, but we don’t want to lose our good performances in attacking moments with scoring and the players performances. But we need to improve and we need to do more.
on whether he will rotate in Ukraine…
For us the Europa League is very important. We want to finish first in the group. It’s a long travel and suddenly after we will play Tottenham, but I want to give the team rest for the competition. We are going to think for Thursday’s game. We are going to decide on Tuesday how we can prepare better to win there and then think about Saturday.
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