Arsenal manager Unai Emery was delighted with his team’s attitude against Aston Villa but admits they must improve at the back. The Gunners came back from behind on two occasions to claim all three points against Villa on Sunday, with striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring his sixth goal in as many matches.
Villa opened the scoring in the first half through midfielder John McGinn, only for Nicolas Pepe to convert a penalty. Wesley thought he had done enough to win the contest, but late goals from Calum Chambers and Aubameyang sealed the three points for Arsenal.
Emery’s side had to play over 45 minutes of the match with 10 men after Ainsley Maitland-Niles was sent off, but they still moved up to fourth after their dramatic 3-2 win.
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Arsenal are now unbeaten in four matches in all competitions, but Emery says his team are vulnerable at the back. The north London outfit have conceded nine goals in five games and the Spaniard says they need to improve quickly.
He told the club’s official website: “Today the character was amazing and really, playing with one less player is not easy. We lost a little bit of the control, and we won that character with our supporters, we took some risks, and we came back.
“Today is two things for me: the first is that character, that connection with the supporters, and after this, how we can improve defensively and throughout the first 11. Really we lost more balls than we wanted and this is the one situation we didn’t have the control over in the first 30 minutes like we wanted. It’s one thing for me to improve and to work with the players.”
Arsenal are next in action in the Carabao Cup as they prepare to host Nottingham Forest on Tuesday night. They then travel to Old Trafford to tackle Manchester United on Monday night before hosting Standard Liege in the Europa League.
