Unai Emery apologises for kicking bottle in Arsenal's draw with Brighton
Emery also says Mesut Ozil's half-time substitution was "tactical"
Wednesday 26 December 2018 21:54, UK
Unai Emery has apologised after appearing to accidentally kick a bottle at a supporter during Arsenal's draw at Brighton.
The Gunners manager showed his frustration late in the game as he turned and booted a bottle towards the stands.
He immediately apologised after seeing the bottle had gone into the stands and seemingly hit a supporter.
Asked about it afterwards, Emery said: "I said to them apologies because I kicked the bottle after a disappointing action for us in the last minutes.
"It wasn't hard, but it touched one supporter. I said to them I'm sorry."
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Arsenal had started the match brightly, taking the lead through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the seventh minute.
However, they failed to score again and Brighton levelled before half-time and then had the better of the second half.
"I think the key today was the first 45 minutes," said Emery. "We controlled the match like we want, we scored and had two good chances from Aubameyang to get the second - but their keeper saved.
"But then they equalised. From then, it gave us the second half to try again to control the match, create chances and be able to win - but we didn't do that.
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"Good control with the possession but not good creating chances against them. We didn't concede a lot from them, but it wasn't enough today in the 90 minutes to win the three points."
Emery also said he didn't regret the decision to take off Mesut Ozil at half-time.
"No. It was only tactically. We did it before in other matches to also change the idea from the first half with other players. And today I did it with Mesut, that is only tactically, not another problem.
"I wanted to control better the positioning on the pitch, but in the second half we couldn't do our ideas on the pitch to impose. We created less chances in the second half."
