Unai Emery’s reign at Arsenal kicked off on a poor note with a defeat to defending champions Manchester City. The 2-0 defeat at The Emirates was the Spanaird’s first competitive game in charge of the Gunners and it didn’t go as expected.

I am usually not thrilled by preseason results and opening games like this acts like a reality check to those that make a great deal of preseason results.

It is going to be a long transition from Wenger’s Arsenal to Emery’s. It would take a huge mental shift. Will Arsenal be patient? Would the fans be patient?

The debutants all had a good game. Guendouzi may have given Sterling much space for the goal but he was the liveliest on the pitch, eclipsing Xhaka who had a poor game. Sokratis was ok. Lichtsteiner came in for injured AMN and put in a good shift.

Torreira came in after 2-0 and showed why he is needed in the middle. Leno was unused but with Cech’s unconvincing display, he would fancy making his debut at Stamford Bridge.

Manchester City were always going to be better and Unai has a poor record against Pep. Yet, one would have expected Arsenal to at least get a goal.

Aubameyang fired wide. Ozil mis-kicked, Lacazette blazed off, and was off when the opportunities came. Ederson made errors yet the experienced Arsenal front men lacked the cutting edge to punish the City.

We may be in transition mode, but this was a below par performance for Arsenal. Next is Chelsea.

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