Press conference

Unai Emery’s press conference: every single word

Unai Emery

Mesut Ozil’s influential display, Lucas Torreira’s instant impact and the latest on Aaron Ramsey’s fitness.

All that and more came up when Unai Emery faced the media after our 2-1 win at Newcastle. Here’s what he said:

on what he said to the players at half-time…

In the first half we didn’t control the match like we wanted to. Also, we needed that control to input our ideas. We conceded a lot of chances for transitions and counter-attacks, but not giving away major chances. They had a lot of corners and a lot of possibilities to arrive in our box. In the second half, the balance on the pitch was better - our positioning and when we were attacking we didn’t make the transition easy for us. I think the key is the first goal. This goal gave us the confidence to continue to improve in the match. We finished the match with the result.

on the impact of Torreira…

I want to give every player confidence. I am very happy with Matteo and also very happy with Lucas. Maybe in the second half we needed a little more balance on the pitch with the positioning. Lucas gives us this balance.

on Ozil’s performance…

For me, every player is the same - I want to give them the confidence and push them. Today I’m happy because I want every player to have chances to score. Today Mesut scored and I think that’s important. He continued his process on the team, helping with his quality and working every day to continue with the performances we want the team and him to have.

on if he’ll rotate in the Europa League - and if Leno will play…

We are going to change and use a lot of players for different competitions, but only thinking about the best performance for us to win on Thursday. Every competition for me is about [doing as well as you can] and normally you use a different goalkeeper in those [other] competitions, but it’s about giving [your best] performance.

on winning away…

We need to push for ourselves and also the challenge. One challenge is to have better performances away and to be more competitive and to have a lot of chances to win, but this needs to be done with consistency and our demands are very hard. We need to continue because we need to prove that we’re being more competitive and I think that’s one of the important things that the team showed us.

on whether Ozil not playing for Germany can benefit Arsenal…

It’s a new way for him and we want his performance in each training day and each match to give his qualities to us. I want also his best performances for us and today I think that first he worked well and then also I think he did a good match.

on Aubameyang being annoyed at being substituted…

It’s normal. I want the players when I change the team or when I decide them not to start them in the first XI to be angry and have ambition to play and help the team and stay on the pitch. For me it’s a normal situation.

on Ramsey being substituted…

It’s also normal. He played with the national team two matches and then he played 80 minutes with us, so he asked us to change him. It’s not a big problem but he was tired. I think it is no problem.