Unai Emery says Arsenal focus is on Premier League despite Europa League progress
Thursday 21 February 2019 22:54, UK
Unai Emery insists the Premier League remains Arsenal's main point of focus, despite his side advancing to the last 16 of the Europa League with a 3-1 aggregate win over BATE Borisov.
The Gunners had to overturn a 1-0 deficit from the opening leg in Belarus but after a convincing victory at the Emirates on Thursday night, Emery immediately turned his attention to Sunday's home game with Southampton, who ended their 15-match unbeaten run in the league with a 3-2 win at St Mary's in December.
"For us, the Premier League is the first competition," he said. "At the moment, we are fighting with Manchester United and Chelsea in the same position [fourth].
"Sunday is a big challenge again against Southampton. I want to find here, with our supporters, this regularity every match with a big performance.
"We are going to play [again] after three days and we need to play again on Wednesday [against Bournemouth], and we need every player to be the focus for us and do their all in our matches."
Emery highlighted the need for sustained intensity during matches as key to success for Arsenal, something he felt they achieved against BATE.
"We want to take this intensity into every match. At home we want to [make it] very demanding for all our players to push and carry on through 90 minutes," added Emery.
"We will then give the opposition a difficult 90 minutes here. Today we did that and we are doing [so] in a lot of matches.
"Each match is a new chapter, a new challenge, and Sunday I prefer to change some players if I know they are going to give us this intensity. We had players who didn't play today who can help us Sunday.
"I think we also have to create a good feeling with our supporters, giving them our energy and quality.
"I think we are doing more here than away but keeping consistency is my target with this team."
