Unai Emery dissected our performance against Crystal Palace when he faced the media shortly after our 2-2 draw at Selhurst Park.
Here’s what the head coach said about the result, the talking points and his tactical decisions.
on the performance...
The two teams are sad I think. For us the first half was not easy. When they scored it is the moment when we are on the pitch with the control, but not doing a lot of things in the attacking third. In the second half we scored two goals in two actions. They were pushing with their supporters and every player was attacking us. In this moment we needed the control because we lost our position and we needed to have scored the third goal, we needed to be calm. We cannot do a good transition from this. I wanted to push, I wanted to continue to find our moment to win the match, but we could not.
on whether Palace's second goal was a penalty...
When you are defending a lot in your box, that can happen. Is it a penalty or not a penalty, it's not my work. I respect the referee’s decision and we need to not concede chances and to have more control with the ball and keep the opposition outside our box. We could not do that today.
on whether Ozil was unhappy to come off...
No, it is normal not to be happy. I like the players like him who show the character when we are not playing well, and when I substituted him at 2-1 usually every player wants to continue playing.
on Mustafi's error for the penalty...
You look at it better than me! Maybe yes, maybe not. I will look at the match again and then I can speak to you about that.
on what he was trying to tell his players after Palace’s second goal…
We can make mistakes on the pitch. Every day I am making mistakes in my decisions. Mistakes are to learn from and not for us to lose our confidence or our belief on the pitch. For the second goal, Laca was maybe not thinking as much, and I was pushing him to think more. The second goal was an action where we had the ball in the opposition box and we did one bad pass. When we are in the box, in the opposition box, I want us to show aggression to find the last action to score or shoot, to win a corner or whatever action. But with this pass, we lost the ball and then they scored from the transition. For me, there are things that happen on the pitch when we continue in our process to learn, and the mentality we need to show when we are in the good moments to keep and hold the ball. We need to keep that mentality to continue to find our moments and our chances. In the last 10 minutes, I wanted to push for that, but that didn’t happen for us because it was not very easy for us on the pitch.
on why he brought off Ozil and put Welbeck at No 10…
In the last match away in the Premier League, against Fulham, we played like that and did a very good job. I think we lost a little of our possession with the ball and the match was more about the transition, like in our last matches. Also, with Danny and Laca, I wanted to find one good transition between two players and also more goals. Also, in free-kicks defensively, they were pushing and put a ninth player on the pitch for free-kicks to find more chances to score. Danny Welbeck is very good in these situations, both defensively and offensively.
on whether he’s disappointed not to keep pressure on the leaders…
A little bit. I think we are in our process, in our way, and I think we are in a good position now, for continuing our objective. It’s difficult away and I think the team can improve. I think today, the draw was not bad. We want to win but it’s not easy. We look at today and they are a good team. Playing here is not easy for every team, but our challenge is to continue our process of learning in every match. It’s about learning the defensive situations and improving.
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