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Football London
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Phil Spencer

Bernd Leno delivers damning verdict on Unai Emery's tactics after Arsenal's draw with Watford

Bernd Leno has spoken of the 'anger and disappointment' in the Arsenal dressing room after Sunday's draw with Watford.

The Gunners let a two-goal lead slip as the Hornets capitalised on some poor defending to secure a 2-2 draw at Vicarage Road.

Unai Emery takes great pride in instructing his side to play out from the back, but they were caught out for Tom Cleverley's goal which handed the home side a route back into the game.

Speaking after the game, Leno spoke of Emery's tactics but also said that the Gunners got things wrong in the second half.

He said: "That’s our style to play. We try to take the risk because if we beat the press of Watford, then there is a lot of space for our strikers.

“In the first half, we did it very well but in the second we didn’t create too many chances from playing out from the back. It is still a process we have to work on this.

“Everybody was angry and disappointed after this game. The manager is a very positive guy. He wants to be positive and he said we will analyse this game with time.

Watford 2-2 Arsenal: Unai Emery post-match press conference

“Now everybody was with emotions, very mad and crazy. But that is normal after the game. He said ‘calm down and then on Tuesday we analyse this game and then on Thursday we have another game.'"

But while the goalkeeper blamed individual mistakes for Watford's goals, he said that Arsenal need to take a look at their overall game to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again.

Leno said: "It was very frustrating because we controlled the game but also in the first half, you could see that we made two easy mistakes and then at the end we conceded two goals from these kind of mistakes and we were lucky we didn’t lose this game.

“I think in the second half we lost completely the control of the game. The distance from the midfield to the strikers and all the distances from the players were too big. Watford deserved at least the draw.

“The distances between all parts of the team were too big so they had so much space, especially in the second half, it was too easy for them. They could go around our box.

“I don’t know why it was like that but everybody could see that we have to talk about this. In the first half it was better but not perfect. I think we have to be honest and analyse this game.”

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