Unai Emery surprisingly opted with ‘three at the back’ against Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium.
Talking about Bournemouth, they are one of the most influential pressing sides in the Premier League this season and they just showed their whereabouts making their presence known regularly to Arsenal’s defence. But Unai maybe knew about the threat that Bournemouth possess upfront and that made him threw the likes of Sokratis, Mustafi and Holding on the defence line.
Former Arsenal Women’s defender Alex Scott was left quite impressed with Emery’s adaptability for the trip away to the south coast.
“They’re picking up wins away from home which is a complete contrast to last season,” Scott said on Sky Sports.
“But I think you have to credit Unai Emery to change the formation.
“It was a risk coming off an international break, not spending a lot of time with your players.
“But you can see now why he did it and it came to light in the second half.
“It was to pin Bournemouth back and to stop them on the attack.
“So it allowed Arsenal players to be higher up the pitch and more numbers in attacking areas.”
The Gunners are yet to lead at the half time, and Scott says they have been fortunate to still be in some of the games at the stroke of forty-five.
“(Emery) will look at that (the slow starts) today because it is becoming a repeat pattern, how Arsenal start,” she continued.
“And it’s lucky they’re still managing to go into half time still in a game.
“In that first 20 minutes you’re looking at the game and Arsenal were being completely exposed in those areas with the wing-backs.
“But they still managed to stay in the game and change in the second half.”
