Unai Emery will not bring sudden change to Arsenal, says Sunday Supplement
Sunday 5 August 2018 14:11, UK
Arsenal fans should expect a steady, rather than a drastic improvement under Unai Emery, says the Sunday Supplement panel.
Emery took over from Arsene Wenger at the Emirates earlier this summer, bringing to an end the Frenchman's 22-year association with the north London club.
He has signed Lucas Torreira, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Stephan Lichtsteiner, Bernd Leno and Matteo Guendouzi since arriving from Paris Saint-German, Matt Dickinson thinks there will only be gradual change under the new man.
"Arsenal we will see improvement, there are no two ways about that," says The Times' chief sports writer.
"There have been a few decent signings, but I do not think there will be a spectacular turnaround. I do not think they will automatically improve by 20 points, but they will get better.
"I'm sure they will spend more time looking at how the opposition play and tweaking things, which was probably the biggest single failing against Wenger. Emery is much more detailed in that way (video analysis)."
We are looking at steady improvement rather than some sudden change
As a result, Arsenal should now expect more consistency in their results under the Spaniard.
"It looks like he is trying to make a tougher spine to the team and so I think there will be less of those collapse days that we would occasionally see from them," said Dickinson.
"We are looking at steady improvement rather than some sudden change. "
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However, despite winning the Treble at PSG last season, Dickinson still thinks there are question marks over Emery, who left the Parc des Princes at the end of the previous campaign having spent two years in the French capital.
"But there are questions about Emery as well - he did some stuff at PSG that you thought was impressive," he said. "But he could not crack Europe with them despite the many resources.
"So I think you look at him as being high on the B-list of managers, rather than on that very, very elite."
