Press conference

Emery's press conference: read every word

Unai Emery was satisfied with his team's performance after we beat BATE Borisov 3-0 to reach the last-16 of the Europa League.

Afterwards, our head coach discussed the result, Mesut Ozil's display, Laurent Koscielny and more.

Read on for a full transcript:

on the performance…

Good evening. It's clear after the first match away, that the result was not too good for us and we needed to do today a big effort. We had to be careful because if we scored one or two or three because if they had scored a goal they could be with a possibility [to qualify] and with this responsibility, we worked with a good performance and good focus for 90 minutes. We didn't concede a lot of chances.

on Koscielny...

I think it's precaution and we are going to wait for tomorrow. But, I hope he will be okay for Sunday and for the next week. It's muscular, it's not a break. But it was only precaution because he was starting to feel not good.

on whether it's his achilles...

I think it's not broken. I think it's only a precaution because he didn't feel good and with the possibility that maybe if he carried on in the match, it could break.

on the Europa League...

It is very important, each competition, and now we have two. In the Premier League we also have the possibility to make our target and in the Europa League, after the first match away, it was very important today to come back and carry on our way here. Now we are going to think the same, for the next match. On Sunday, against Southampton, in the Premier League and we will focus with a big concentration to do that.

on the challenge the game provided and our mentality...

It was a good test today, a good challenge. The first match, we deserved more but it can happen like it did, with chances but not scoring. They had efficiency when they found their moment. And today, it could happen the same, but we didn't concede a  lot of corners or free kicks near our box. Then we pushed and we carried on. We scored the second goal and the third goal and I think this mentality is good and also because this match was very dangerous for us, if they had scored in our stadium. It's the reason that we were speaking before the match that it was a good challenge, a good test, and our response can have our focus to play, to play and carry on. I think we can be happy today and also with our ideas continuing in this competition with our next way and finding, little-by-little, more difficulty.

on the best way to get into the CL...

It is very, very difficult to win this competition. I have won this competition a lot of times and, for example, the last three were Man Utd, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla playing against Liverpool three years ago. There are a lot of teams who cannot play in the Champions League, like us, and they are fighting to find a way in this competition and for one title against big, big teams. For us also, I think it's a good test and a good challenge to carry on and to find our best performances.

on Ozil’s performance…

Well, I said to him to carry on and be available like today and the last two weeks to continue training and helping us. Today I am happy and this is the way we want with him.

on Guendouzi...

His development is like we want, he has big ambition and big quality and sometimes we need more quality with him and sometimes we need to be stronger in midfield with different matches, it depends. His development with us is very important and he is playing with consistency and I think he is improving. His quality of his football is very important for us and for me.

on winning the Europa League...

We can and maybe if we can say 16 teams, one is Arsenal, but it is very difficult and a lot of teams want the same. We need to create a big atmosphere in this competition with our supporters and this feeling can give us more opportunities after our quality and capacity as a team. We need to feel stronger in this competition with every supporter and create this atmosphere around us.

on improvement at set pieces...

Today I didn't do the crosses, the players were better! In the video we didn't score, but we did today because the crosses were better!

on Ozil needing to play like this more often...

Yes, he needs to be available and carry on. He wants to do this and today he showed what he wants. If he is available, like the last two weeks, we are going to play a lot of matches and maybe sometimes we need him in the starting XI and sometimes on the bench because we have a lot of players to also help us. His spirit like today is good and his quality and capacity and combination with some players is good, like with Guendouzi and Micki and Iwobi in the attacking third. I think we need every player and today playing Mesut was important and positive.

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