Unai Emery expressed his disappointment on conceding two late goals against Vorskla Poltava in Arsenal’s Europa League opener. The Gunners had a brilliant start to their Europa League campaign by beating the Ukrainian club 4-2.
A brace from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and goals from Danny Welbeck and Mesut Ozil gave Arsenal a 4-0 lead. However, Vorskla struck twice within the remainder of the match.
Arsenal also conceded a late goal against Newcastle last weekend. Unai Emery was not happy that his side conceded late goals again.
Emery said, “It is our disappointment today… We need to continue to improve in this because the last minute at Newcastle and today, in the last 20 minutes, there were two goals, and our success and our challenge is to be competitive for 90 minutes each match and it is one thing to improve.
Emery expressed his pleasure on starting the Europa League with a win at home in front of Arsenal fans. He said, “We are happy because the first match with our supporters is very important to win and also, at the beginning of this competition, to take the confidence and to take the first victories. I thought the first 60 minutes were very good, there was good progression in the match and imposing our ideas against theirs. With the four goals, we are thinking in a good moment but we want to be competitive over 90 minutes.
We are speaking before each match to take a mentality of ‘don’t concede chances easily’. I think today is a good opportunity for not accepting goals, but the last 30 minutes, we needed to be better”
Summer signings Lucas Torreira and Bernd Leno both had their first starts for Arsenal this season. Emery hinted that Leno will get more starting chances for Arsenal. He said, “Lucas is playing with his progress on the team and on our ideas, our performance with a passion and with a performance. Each minute he is playing, he is doing very well.
And for Leno, it’s the first match also. I think that we conceded two goals but not for a mistake. For him, it takes minutes for the game and confidence for continuing also because he will be continuing to play matches in the next week.”
Arsenal are currently 7th in the Premier League and play their next match against Everton on Sunday. Their next Europa League fixture is against Azerbaijan club Qarabag. Qarabag began their Europa League campaign with a 2-0 loss to Sporting CP.
