Allardyce lashes out at Emery's tactics against City

Kolkata, August 14: Currently out of any managerial role for a Premier League club, one of Premier League’s most experienced manager has not stopped giving his opinions on the game.

Former England manager Sam Allardyce, who is currently a television pundit, has taken a swipe at Unai Emery, saying his tactics were stupid during Arsenal’s opening day defeat to Manchester City.

Arsenal’s new era under Emery got off to a rocky start as defending Premier League champions consigned the Gunners to a 2-0 defeat.

And according to Allardyce, Emery was at fault with his failed tactical game.

“It is the manager’s fault,” Allardyce told TalkSport when asked about Arsenal’s struggles.

“Don’t ask somebody to do against Man City what you shouldn’t do. You shouldn’t play out like that against Manchester City.

“What do Manchester City do? They press, press, press so why do you try and play out when they press, press, press?

“Even the Arsenal crowd cheered when Cech dropped one in the opposition’s half.”

Even though Emery signed a first-choice keeper in Bernd Leno this summer, he decided to stick with Petr Cech in front of the goal for such a crucial match. But Arsenal fell easy prey to City's high pressing game and pace upfront. Cech also came close to scoring an embarrassing own goal with such high pressure tactics from Pep Guardiola.

"Even the Arsenal crowd cheered when he [Cech] dropped one in the opposition's half.

"We are getting obsessed with this stupid 'let's play out from the back, split the center halves either side of the 18-yard box and go and play from there'… it's utter rubbish to play like that all of the time.

"When you're the best at it [like City] then you can do it," he added.

Arsenal’s season could get tougher as they face Chelsea next weekend, a revived side under Maurizio Sarri, who beat Huddersfield Town 3-0 in their opening game.