What Unai Emery told Arsenal players after collapse vs Watford

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Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno has revealed how manager Unai Emery responded to the team’s capitulation against Watford in their Premier League clash over the weekend.

The Gunners went 2-0 up at Vicarage Road only to be held to a 2-2 draw after a dire second half display, with the defence all over the place as Sokratis Papastathopoulos made a particularly bad error to allow Watford back into the game.

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Leno has since been quoted by the Daily Express as revealing what Emery told the players afterwards, with the Spanish tactician clearly dealing with an angry dressing room and keen for emotions not to get the better of his squad.

“Everybody was angry and disappointed after this game,” the German said.

“The manager is a very positive guy. He wants to be positive and he said we will analyse this game with time.

Unai Emery’s Arsenal put in a poor performance against Watford

“Now everybody was with emotions, very mad and crazy. But that is normal after the game.

“He said ‘calm down and then on Tuesday we analyse this game and then on Thursday we have another game’.”

It remains to be seen what Arsenal fans will make of this from their manager, who is yet to really nail down a style of play or set tactical plan since replacing Arsene Wenger last summer.

While Wenger had also become fairly unpopular with AFC supporters, he at least guaranteed some entertaining and attack-minded football, but the team has been outplayed all too often in the Emery era so far.

Leno has also been quoted by i News as suggesting he didn’t think much of Emery’s tactics against Watford, saying: “I think the distances between all the different parts of the team were too big and in the second half they had so much space and it was too easy for them, they could [play] around our box. Everyone could see that and we have to talk about it. In the first half it was much better, but we have to be honest.”

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