Arsenal ended Aston Villa’s impressive run on Tuesday evening. Unai Emery gave a dry explanation for why he didn’t shake hands with his fellow coach after the 1-4 defeat.
Aston Villa had strung together eleven competitive wins before their visit to the Emirates Stadium. On Tuesday evening, however, the Gunners were too strong for their visitors, who were weakened by substitutions in key positions, in the second half.
Immediately after the 1-4 defeat, a scene remained in the memory in which Mikel Arteta searched in vain for his counterpart to shake hands. Instead, the Basque briefly watched his compatriot Unai Emery, who was already on his way to the players’ tunnel. Was this disrespect preceded by verbal discussions during the 90 minutes? “It’s quite simple,” Emery began his response to the question at the press conference after the heavy defeat: “You can see for yourselves. My routine after the final whistle is always quite short. I shake hands and then go to the dressing room with my staff and players.“
But why did Emery only shake hands with fourth official Thomas Kirk this time? ”I waited and waited,” explained the Villa coach, adding in Arteta’s direction: “He was happy, of course he was happy, and at that moment he was with his coaching team. I usually always shake hands with the opposing coach. If he doesn’t follow the same pattern, then I can’t wait – it was cold.”
Arteta didn’t want to overstate the scene either: “You saw it, but it’s okay, everything’s fine. It’s part of the game and absolutely not unusual.“
Arsenal’s coach simply seemed happy to have gotten the ”tough nut“ out of the way. The Gunners have their sights set on several titles for the new year: ”We know what we want. We’ll have to work very hard every day, but I think we’re on the right track.“
After ”ten shaky minutes,“ Arsenal found the right answers, took control, and were ”very efficient in all aspects,“ especially after the break, Areta praised: ”We had to be very precise, and I have to give my players a lot of credit because it’s not easy against this team.” After the last few games, in which Arsenal had missed a string of top-class chances, Arteta was satisfied with the conversion rate this time.
Special praise for Gabriel: “Influenced the game in an incredible way”
Arteta was particularly pleased with two Brazilians that evening. Center back Gabriel, who had opened the scoring shortly after the break, was outstanding. “He’s coming back from a six-week injury layoff, which probably should have been a little longer, and he’s playing against the team that’s probably the hardest to control, especially the strikers in terms of their movement. He had an incredible impact on the game, both in defense and in the opponent’s penalty area,“ his coach enthused. Long-term injury victim Gabriel Jesus also made his mark with his ”beautiful goal” (Arteta) to make it 4-0. “Everyone is ready to contribute, and that’s great,” Arteta concluded. The action continues on Saturday at AFC Bournemouth. Arteta left open whether the injured Declan Rice will be able to play.
