Van Persie insists Arsenal are yet to improve under Emery

Former Arsenal striker Robin van Persie believes that there is a communication gap between Unai Emery and his players at the Emirates, which is causing a hurdle in their efforts to improve.

Arsenal notched a hard-fought 3-2 victory against Vitoria SC, thanks to a free-kick brace from new signing Pepe in the last two minutes of the game.

“I don’t think so. I don’t think that Emery really connects with his players. I think they’re still weak on set pieces. That was a problem back in my time, to be honest,” RvP said.

“There is a question do you play zonal or man-to-man. I think when you’re struggling you play man-to-man. Last weekend they again conceded from a corner kick.”

“I think you lose 12 to 15 points per season by set pieces. That should stop. If you want to compete for the first couple of places that has to stop. You have to sort it out.”

“We are not judging the coach on tonight but the last couple of months or the year before. As a player you want to have that feeling you have to sprint back, now I see a couple of players jogging back. There’s danger there.”

“If you have a very strong coach and you’re in midfield and you see there is danger in there you sprint for your life because you know if you don’t do it you get punished.”

“I’ve had [Arsene] Wenger, Louis Van Gaal, [Sir Alex] Ferguson and the thing they all had was they were clear. I have to be honest, someone sent me a video last week of him explaining something and I couldn’t understand him. You have to be clear and a leader has to be clear towards his players.”

Arsenal will face Crystal Palace in the Premier League this weekend.