Unai Emery Highlights 2 Areas for Arsenal to Improve Before Hosting Aston Villa

Arsenal manager Unai Emery insists his side have a collective responsibility to improve defensively after throwing away a two-goal lead against Watford,

Arsenal manager Unai Emery insists his side have a collective responsibility to improve defensively after throwing away a two-goal lead against Watford, pointing out that the club have been sitting too deep when they're out of possession.

The Gunners faced 31 shots at Vicarage Road last week and made a handful of defensive errors, highlighting the club's weaknesses at the back which have also flared up in matches against Liverpool and Tottenham.

Arsenal's back four will be boosted over the next few weeks as Rob Holding, Héctor Bellerín and Kieran Tierney return from injury, but Emery insists that the club still have to improve collectively when defending.

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"Two things. First, we need to be competitive and we need to improve defensively, but it's not all down to the defensive players, the goalkeeper, the midfield - it's for all the team," Emery said, quoted by Sky Sports.

"Secondly, sometimes we are defending deep, more deep than we want to. Our block is more deep than we want usually. We don't want to defend in that situation, too deep, many times.

"A lot of shots? They are shots. It's not that important. They're not a danger for us, really. We need to improve. We also need, as a team, to be more compact. We need to start our pressing a little more ahead.

"We could do that work better and, on Sunday at home against Aston Villa, we are going to try to do better."

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Arsenal were able to keep a clean sheet against last season's Europa League semi-finalists Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday.

But they still faced 24 shots and largely relied on a stunning individual performance from back-up goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.