Unai Emery knows defensive improvements necessary if Arsenal are to flourish in 2019

Arsenal beat Fulham 4-1 on New Year's Day but they conceded two very good early chances to Ryan Sessegnon which could have seen them go behind

Unai Emery has told Arsenal that they need to improve defensively as a priority in 2019.

Arsenal beat Fulham 4-1 today but they conceded two very good early chances to Ryan Sessegnon which could have seen them go behind. So far this season they have conceded 31 goals in 21 league games, a worse record than West Ham United, Watford, Brighton, Crystal Palace and Newcastle United. Even Huddersfield Town have only conceded three more goals than them.

Emery knows that this needs to improve and he pointed to the defensive injuries Arsenal have suffered as one of the reasons for this inconsistency.

“Our challenge now is to improve defensively,” Emery said in his post-match press conference.

“The reason may be different things. We have not had every player, because of different injuries. Today is the first time we could play with [Laurent] Koscielny, [Shkodran] Mustafi and Sokratis [Papastathopoulos].” This was just Koscielny’s third start of the Premier League season.

“We are very happy with our attacking players. We are scoring a lot of goals, like today. We are in the table as a goal-scoring team. Defensively we must find more balance and improve. It is one of the things we need to work on, to prepare for the second half of the season. We need to do better in the second half of the season, work on every player, every team, tactically.”

Mustafi came off at half-time and Emery confirmed he was struggling with his hamstring again. “He has a small injury, a small problem. He did not feel well after the first half. He said to us to change. It is not a big injury.”

Emery also warned it would be difficult for Arsenal to strengthen in the January transfer window, although they would try.

“It is not easy improving the team in the transfer market,” he said. “The club is working, watching different possibilities. Maybe we can, if the transfer market gives us the opportunity, to sign one or two players. Emery said the club have not spoken about signing Gary Cahill on loan from Chelsea.