Daily Mirror - 24.07.2019

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mirror.co.uk/sport WEDNESDAY 24.07.2019 DAILY MIRROR^61

ARSENAL ON TOUR

GET REAL!

As the Gunners prepared to face Madrid, boss Emery tells fans...

UNAI EMERY has

warned Arsenal

fans to be realistic

as he approaches

the defining

season of his reign

at the Emirates.

Emery showed

encouraging signs in

his first year in charge but

ultimately Arsenal fell short

because they missed out again on

a Champions League spot.

Gunners have failed to finish

higher than fifth in any of the last

three seasons and the Spaniard

knows another flop is not an

option. When he took charge in

2018 Emery was given a three-year

contract that has a break clause

next summer – this season there-

fore is pretty much make or break.

The 47-year-old said: ““We need

to believe in our our players. We

have very good players, very good

young players, and we want to

sign two or three more.

“But we need to be realistic

because the distance between us

and Liverpool and Manchester

City is a lot of points.

“And to finish in the top four is

difficult because Tottenham are

growing, Chelsea also kept their

players, and Manchester United

may have finished behind

us last season but they

have a lot of potential.”

It was a season of near-

misses for Arsenal last

term.

They finished just a point off

the top four and wasted the

chance to reach the Cham-

pions League through the

Europa League when

beaten by Chelsea

in the final.

Those failures

the top four in the Premier

League.”

Emery has been in good form

on Arsenal’s US tour, looking

relaxed while working with his

players. His English, while still not

fluent, is improving – his regular

translator has stayed in the UK –

and the task of following a legend

like Arsene Wenger no longer

seems to weigh heavily on him.

A regular gripe from Arsenal

fans last season was that it was

often hard to fathom out what

Emery was aiming for with his

selections and tactics. Were Arse-

nal a possession team, a pressing

team, a counter-punching team?

But he said his first target in the

new season is to give the team

more of an identity.

The Spaniard, who won three

successive Europa League

trophies when manager of Sevilla,

said: “I respect all the good things

Wenger was doing here and I want

to continue the good things and

also change some tactical things.

“My idea is the same: I want a

team with good positioning, with

good combination between the

players, and also with good experi-

ence in all situations.

“We need to be able to attack

with speed and intensity. I like my

team to show energy, I like my

players to be protagonists.”

Emery also needs to fix

the discrepancy between

Arsenal’s home form and

their away form. Last

season they lost eight of 19

Premier League fixtures on

the road.

“In some matches last

season you could see that

playing with energy is what

we tried to do,” he said.

“At other times we

couldn’t do that. But

our challenge is to

continue developing

individual players.”

have been costly. There is less

money for Emery to spend. In fact

he has only a £45million budget

• peanuts considering Arsenal
  finished 28 points behind
  champions Manchester City.
  Apart from Brazilian teenager
  Gabriel Martinelli, signed for just
  £6m, Emery has added only Real
  Madrid midfielder Dani Ceballos,
  who is set to arrive on loan.
  It will be even harder for
  Arsenal next season with the likes
  of Leicester, Wolves and Everton
  all fancying themselves to launch
  an assault on the top six.
  Emery knows he needs to be
  looking ahead and not worrying
  who is behind him.
  “Our first objective next season
  is to get to the Champions
  League,” said Emery. “But we need
  to close the gap on Chelsea and
  To tt e n h a m.
  “We must remember we
  finished only two points behind
  Chelsea and one point behind
  To tt e n h a m.
  “We have
  to take an-
  other big
  step to
  compete
  with them
  next term and
  to fight for

The distance between us and the top two

of Liverpool and Man City is a lot of points

Tottenham are growing up, Chelsea kept

a lot of their players and Man Utd have

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Unai Emery likes

what he sees and

(right) Mesut Ozil

takes a time out

SEAL OF

APPROVAL

LOAN GOAL Dani Ceballos

will join Arsenal this week

Unai’s OK

with only

the loanly

FROM JOHN CROSS

UNAI EMERY insists he has

no complaints about

signing Dani Ceballos only

on loan – as long as he

improves his squad.

Arsenal have missed out

on their bigger targets

after having bids turned

down for Wilfried Zaha and

Kieran Tierney.

But Emery believes Spain

Under-21 midfielder

Ceballos, due in London to

complete a medical, will be

a major new addition.

The Spaniard sees

22-year-old Ceballos as a

playmaker rather than a

box-to-box player.

Ceballos, who has made

56 appearances for Real

Madrid since joining in 2017,

does not want to give up on

becoming a regular at the

Bernabeu so it is just a

temporary deal, but

Arsenal are hopeful that if

it goes well then they could

make it permanent.

Gunners have not given

up on Zaha but, with

Crystal Palace holding out

for £80million, a deal looks

unlikely. The same can be

said for Scottish defender

Tierney. Celtic want more

of Arsenal’s £25m offer up

front while Emery would

prefer to stagger payments.

Arsenal would be willing

to offer players plus cash to

Palace for Ivory Coast

international Zaha but so

far their London rivals have

said they are not interested.

BY JOHN CROSS

Chief Football Writer

from Washington

@johncrossmirror