Arsenal vs Valencia: Unai Emery keen to score after Liverpool’s win over Barcelona shows folly of sitting back
Arsenal have a 3-1 lead to defend after the first leg at the Emirates
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Unai Emery has promised that Arsenal “will play to win” when they take on Valencia at the Mestalla tomorrow evening, with his side attempting to get on the front foot and score an away goal, rather than simply defend their 3-1 lead from the Emirates last week.
Arsenal fought back from a goal down in the first leg of the semi-final at the Emirates Stadium, with a brace from Alexandre Lacazette and a late finish from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang putting the English side in control of the Europa League semi-final.
But, fresh from watching Barcelona’s 3-0 first leg lead against Liverpool evaporate at Anfield on Tuesday night, Emery has insisted his team will not sit back and will instead do their uttermost to score an away goal.
“Our idea is to play the match to win,” Emery said at the Mestalla on the eve of the match. “And if you want to win, you need to score. [Valencia] are a very aggressive team and well structured defensively — but they need to score. So our idea is to do both and take our chances.”
When asked about the Liverpool comeback on Tuesday night, he replied: “For us it will still be the same message. After the first-leg in London it is still a 50/50 for the two teams and the result from the first-leg does not change my ideas.
“We know it will be difficult and we can take plenty of examples from the past — not only yesterday. So we know it will be difficult and we have to play with ambition and motivation, and we need to make sure our preparation is very good.”
Emery added that the Europa League has “grown” as a competition — and that Arsenal supporters should see the tournament as an “important title”, especially considering the club's paucity of European trophies.
“I first competed for this title here at Valencia when it was still the Uefa cup and was a lesser title than I think it is now. It has grown,” he said. “It’s an important title for all those teams that are not in the Champions league – and for some who drop into it as a second chance, like Valencia this season.
“It’s a title they all want to win. Giving teams a Champions League place through the Europa league is a fair reward. I have seen that shift. It’s an attractive title and it’s getting more attractive: now we have seen Manchester United, Atlético and Sevilla win.
“The demands are high and everyone wants it, as a title, not just a way in [to the Champions League]. At any club like Arsenal or Valencia, titles have to be objectives [in themselves].
“Arsenal only have two European titles in their history: the old Fairs cup and the cup winners cup, neither of which now exist, so I have a lot of ambition to win a title.”
Meanwhile 36-year-old goalkeeper Petr Cech, who is set to retire at the end of the current season, has insisted that he is confident his career will not come to an untimely end tomorrow evening.
“We have been in this position a few times,” he said. “We lost away in Borisov and the home leg could have been the last game in Europe for me. And we lost in France so the return leg was the same situation. We beat Napoli at home, but we respected the opponent in Italy, so the situation is the same.
“We have given ourselves a two goal cushion but they have an away goal. You saw [from Liverpool vs Barcelona] that ties can be overturned, so we will keep our feet on the ground and we know that tomorrow will be a very difficult 90 minutes.”
Arsenal travelling squad: Petr Cech, Bernd Leno, Deyan Iliev; Stephan Lichtsteiner, Shkodran Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Nacho Monreal, Sead Kolasinac, Ainsley Maitland-Niles; Lucas Torreira, Granit Xhaka, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Mohamed Elneny, Matteo Guendouzi, Mesut Ozil, Alex Iwobi, Joe Willock; Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Eddie Nketiah.
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