Unai Emery at Arsenal

Many younger Arsenal fans had never actually seen a change in manager at their club. So when Arsene Wenger announced his departure from the Emirates, an unusual situation developed in North London for many Gunners fans.

A unanimous board decision decided the man who impressed most in the interview process, and the man who could restore the glory days at Arsenal was Unai Emery.

The former Valencia, Sevilla and PSG boss, now 46 arrives in North London with the task of restoring the Gunners to English footballs elite.

Emery arrives with an entourage of trusted aides such as Juan Carlos Carcedo, Pablo Villanueva and Julen Masach, all of whom have worked with the Basque-born Emery previously.

Tactical blueprint

Emery favours a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 shape to his teams, playing out from the back, creating situational advantages and pressing are all components of this blueprint.

Something within the current Arsenal squad which can give Emery confidence is the number of players with good technical ability who will be able to adapt to his demands fairly quickly. There is a strong emphasis on a holding midfielder dropping into the last line of defence, allowing the full backs to play forward, creating numerical situations down the sides with the wingers.

Perhaps important for Arsenal is the fact the new man has tried to address what many fans feel has been missing for years.

The signing of Bernd Leno, who will become an important ballplayer distributing to his central defenders and allowing them to build attacks from deep.

Lucas Torreira, arguably the dogged holding midfielder that Arsenal have lacked for a few years. Torreira will take on a similar role to that of Thiago Motta during Emerys time in Paris. The Uruguayan is a player who will most likely keep things simple in the middle of the pitch for Arsenal, using short passes and interceptions to allow the team to create and be in control of the ball. He was amongst the top tacklers in Serie A last term, this is an area where many fans will feel the club have lacked a dominant figure of this type in so many games.

In a 4-3-3 shape, the holding midfielder allows the other central midfielders to join attacks or support attacks down the sides. In possession, both wide players will drift inside creating space for the advancing full backs. This then resembles more of a 3-4-3 structure.
Emerys PSG last season, Neymar drifting inside to receive a pass, allowing a numerical advantage to develop with the left fullback overlapping.

Attacking in this fashion will see the left fullback and right fullback positioned high up the pitch, with the two wider players, presumably Ozil and Mkhitaryan, drifting inside to create pockets of space, and allow the full-backs to get themselves into strong positions down either side.

Use of the flanks will be permitted in Emerys system, if absolutely necessary, however, he will have less of a probing approach, differing slightly to Arsene Wenger.

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