Unai Emery on Lacazette’s substitution: The crowd at the Emirates Stadium booed the Arsenal head coach after he substituted Lacazette.
Arsenal cruised to a 4-1 victory over Fulham last night. Xhaka, Lacazette, Ramsey and Aubameyang were all on the scoresheet as the Gunners returned to winning ways after a fairly disappointing run of games.
With this win, Unai Emery’s side is now only two points behind Chelsea, who play Southampton later tonight. They also extended their gap with Manchester United to six points, who take on Newcastle in the late night fixture today.
However, one of the big talking points of the game remained Unai Emery’s decision to substitute Alexandre Lacazette in the second half. Emery has repeatedly taken off the forward near the 70th minute-mark, which has gradually infuriated the Arsenal fans.
As he took the French forward off, the crowd at Emirates booed Unai Emery. The Arsenal head coach, however, provided reason for his decision, while acknowledging the fans’ anger.
Unai Emery on Lacazette’s substitution:
Arsenal’s head coach stated that the change was tactical, but insisted that he understands the supporters’ anger.
“I understand the supporters, but I need to do my work,” said Emery in the post-match conference.
“Tactically we are thinking to change for more balance. We know Seri well, we need a player close to him and not let him play with the ball too easily and I think Ramsey can do that.”
Emery also insisted that Ramsey closed down Seri and also helped in the attack, and praised Lacazette for his performance.
[yuzo_related]
“When Aaron Ramsey came onto the pitch, he could do that & can also help us in attacking moments & he scored. The reason for the decision was this & I need to do my work.
“Every supporter can think different things tactically, but for me today, Lacazette worked very well today, scored & he helped us. His reaction was very positive.”
Lacazette and Aubameyang started together in the game against Fulham, and Emery was appreciative of the duo.
“We played a lot with both. A lot also from the start. It depends on the matches. They’ve played a lot of minutes & I’m very happy with them both. Today the most important thing for us is the victory & that they scored,” he said.
