Sam Allardyce has slammed new Arsenal manager Unai Emery for trying to get his side to play out from the back against Manchester City.
Emery underwent a humbling competitive debut as Arsenal boss as his side slipped to a 2-0 defeat against Pep Guardiola’s champions at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon.
It was notable that Arsenal insisted on playing the ball out from the back during the game, something that played into City’s style, which involves heavy pressing in the opposition half.
There were also some difficult moments for Arsenal, with goalkeeper Petr Cech nearly passing the ball into the back of his own net during the first-half. The 36-year-old clearly struggled to adapt.
Cech, who misplaced a number of passes on the day, screwed a first-time pass to Mustafi that travelled just wide of his post. The mistake quickly went viral on social media with fans also questioning why the veteran stopper had started ahead of new signing Bernd Leno.
Cech ??? pic.twitter.com/o4WSe4gCH5
— Terje (@ArsenalTerje) August 12, 2018
Leno’s former club Bayer also got involved, responding to a clip of the blunder with two tweets saying: ‘We might know a guy,’ and ‘In case you all were wondering how to play out of the back.’
We might know a guy…
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 12, 2018
The second tweet had a video attached of Leno comfortably passing into defence last season and starting a goal scoring move.
In case you all were wondering how to play out of the back… pic.twitter.com/LZkxznsGPs
— Bayer 04 Leverkusen (@bayer04_en) August 12, 2018
Former England manager Allardyce blamed one man for Arsenal’s problems — Emery.
Speaking on Talksport on Monday morning, Allardyce said: ‘This is 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 do you try and play out when they press press press? Even the Arsenal crowd cheered when they dropped one in the opposition 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 halfs, either side of the 18-yard box and go and play from there”… (it’s) utter rubbish to play like that all of the time.’
Asked about City taking risks in a similar manner, Allardyce insisted: ‘When you’re the best at it, you can do it.’