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What's the story?
Arsenal registered their 11th consecutive win in all competitions after beating Sporting in the UEFA Europa League. Arsenal has enjoyed ample improvement under Unai Emery and it seems that the London based club is on the right track.
The Gunners' performance was very poor against Lisbon when compared to their performances in previous games. The first half went goalless, which was totally unexpected. Arsenal, in the end, won the match by one goal, scored by Danny Welbeck.
In case you didn't know...
Arsene Wenger, who managed the London club for 22 years finally stepped down at the end of last season.
Wenger was succeeded by Spanish manager Unai Emery. The Spaniard has been successful in implementing his tactics by playing out from the back and it has yielded them some impressive results.
The heart of the matter
Arsenal scored the winning goal with less than a quarter-hour left before full time. The Gunners are three games away from equalling their best ever winning streak since 1987.
Speaking about the aforementioned record, Emery said:
Three short of all time record? Three matches. They are a lot of matches. We are thinking only of the next one against Crystal Palace and also to enjoy each moment with our supporters.
We are thinking three points in Crystal Palace but it is very difficult to win there. For us to continue to win we want that but we know we can lose at any moment.”
Emery revealed what he said to his players at halftime:
We spoke about this before the match. One objective is this. Most important is the dressing room at half time.
We cannot impose our game in first 45 minutes but we have opportunity to change the result in second half and think only of winning this match and improving things.
We did that. We need to continue finding the solution for the first half to be better.”
What's next?
Unai's Arsenal has shown vulnerabilities at the back against the tougher teams that they have played till now.
Emery and Co. still have a lot of work to do to compete against the big six Premier League clubs and Europe. It is to be seen how Arsenal improve on their current performances, and achieve something this season.
