Former England manager Sam Allardyce criticized Arsenal boss Unai Emery for his tactics against Manchester City yesterday. The Gunners began their Premier League campaign with a 2-0 home defeat to the defending champions.
Allardyce said, “It’s the manager’s fault. It’s his fault. Don’t ask somebody to do, against Manchester City, what you shouldn’t do – and you should not play out like that against Manchester City. What do Manchester City do? Press, press, press. So why is he trying to play out when they press, press, press?
I mean, even the Arsenal crowd cheered when [Cech] dropped one in the opposition’s half. You cannot just force the only way to play is this way in this country. We are getting obsessed with this stupid let’s play out from the back, split the centre-halves either side of the 18-yard box and go and play from there. It’s utter rubbish to consider to play like that all the time.”
Arsenal’s next Premier League match is against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.