Unai Emery must revolutionise Arsenal’s midfield to stand any hope of long-term development

Arsenal's shortcomings in midfield were left exposed in Sunday's 2-0 defeat by Manchester City

When it came to explaining the big difference between Arsenal and Manchester City on the opening weekend of the season, Unai Emery rather understandably pointed to the number of days he and Pep Guardiola have had with their respective squads.

“Today is the first step in that process,” the Arsenal boss said of his team after a flat 2-0 defeat against the champions. “Manchester City have been working [two] years with Guardiola. They are also doing... building one team with security, good players, with a very great stability playing the way they want. And we are starting.”

That however still raises questions about the team he started with, and how it’ll look at the end of the season, particularly in midfield. It’s difficult not to think that it will be completely different.

It was one of a few areas where Emery’s selection raised eyebrows, but most of the surprise centred on the selection of a teenager in Matteo Guendouzi, who only received more attention because of that David Luiz-style hair.

This is where that line about bravery and stupidity comes in. It couldn’t really be described as anything but a risk to put a 19-year-old in for his first ever game for the club against a Manchester City side as good as this and as especially strong as they are in midfield.

It was asking a lot, to say the least, and all the more so when a player like Lucas Torreira was on the bench.

It seems inevitable that Torreira will be the centre of that midfield soon enough, maybe when he gets a bit more used to England, when Emery has the faith in himself to put in more of the new signings. A certain restraint in that regard - with just two of the new signings starting - was understandable in the circumstances.

As to who will sit alongside Torreira it doesn’t necessarily mean Guendouzi will be out of the side.

The teenager had a bad start as he miscontrolled a ball out of play, and some unfortunately conspicuous bad moments like one long shot blazed high, high over the bar - but it is to his credit that he didn’t let it affect him.

He still had the conviction to take the ball in to the heart of that City midfield in the first half and launch what was maybe Arsenal’s best pass of the game, fortifying the argument that he was up there as one of their best players on the day.

He didn’t hide.

There’s even an argument he was one of the few players offering some stability in midfield. The same could not quite be said of Granit Xhaka. One of his first tangible contributions was to be easily dispossessed in midfield by Ilkay Gundogan, setting up a Sergio Aguero run and yet another ominous City attack.

The Arsenal teenager in action against Manchester City (Getty Images)

The Swiss midfielder still looks a bit of out of sorts, as he’s still so often caught out of position. Again, however, it would be drastic to draw conclusions for the end of the season from the very start. And that’s even allowing for the fact Xhaka has now been at this club for so long.

One of the midfielder’s major problems under Wenger was the absence of individual coaching and instruction. Those close to him say that he often didn’t know where to go or what he was supposed to do. This was when the laissez-faire nature of Wenger’s management really began to cause issues, to run its course.

And, to make some allowances for Xhaka, this is still too early in the Emery rein to expect too much change - and especially against a midfield that good.

All of those around the Arsenal training ground say that the Basque does do a lot of individual work, especially in terms of defensive shape. The time to judge Xhaka again will be after a few months of that. He could well evolve as a player.

Arsenal will need to evolve in midfield, though. That’s as clear as the space that allowed City to run through them.