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Arsenal legend Tony Adams slams Unai Emery for leaving out Lucas Torreira and Bernd Leno against Manchester City

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LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 12: Lucas Torreira of Arsenal during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on August 12, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) — Lucas Torreira started on the bench for Arsenals defeat to Manchester City. (Getty Images)

Former Arsenal captain Tony Adams has slammed Unai Emerys team selection for the defeat against Manchester City and believes Lucas Torreira and Bernd Leno should have started against the Premier League champions.

Emerys first game in charge of the Gunners ended in a 2-0 loss as goals from Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva sealed the victory for Pep Guardiolas side.

The new Arsenal manager surprised many with his team selection as both Leno and Torreira started the game on the bench, although the Uruguayan midfielder was brought on in the second half.

And Adams believes Arsenals two new summer signings should start Saturdays clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Granit [Xhaka] is not for me. The lad Torreira came on, he looked tiny, but weve missing that role, missing that guy in front of the back four, Adams told talkSPORT.

ST ALBANS, ENGLAND - AUGUST 09: (L-R) Stephan Lichtsteiner and Bernd Leno of Arsenal during a training session at London Colney on August 10, 2018 in St Albans, England. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) — Stephan Lichtsteiner and Bernd Leno were also benched against Man City. (Getty Images)

He [Torreira] looks intelligent, he looks like he can protect, theres been little ones in the past – Didier Deschamps, [NGolo] Kante is doing a fantastic job for France and Chelsea and I think he [Torreira] might be able to do it for us.

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But start with them. Go with your goalkeeper Leno, put him in goal.

I love Petr Cech, hes a lovely guy and hes been a great pro, but come on, lets go with the new guy, lets work with them.

Get your back four in, get Torreira in, and lets go for it.

As a coach you can get away with it if you put your players in there.

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But to put a kid in Maitland-Niles a makeshift left-back, I dont understand those decisions.

If I were the sports director of Arsenal, Id be knocking on Emerys door this morning saying come on, whats gone on with your selections?. He got a lot of things wrong yesterday.

Adams also believes that his former club are a long way from challenging Manchester City for the Premier League title.

I dont know what hes been doing for the last five or six weeks, Adams continued.

Hes been rotating all his players and given them all a game.

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 12: Lucas Torreira of Arsenal during the match the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Manchester City at Emirates Stadium on August 12, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images) — Torreira is expected to start against Chelsea on Saturday. (Getty Images)

And they have got some good results but its pre-season.

From minute one I would have picked my goalkeeper and my back four and put the two players I want to screen them in place [so] youve got a firm base.

Its been missing for the last ten years. I dont think we won a game away from home last year.

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And thats an underbelly of a lack of resistance and a lack of resilience.

I really wanted to [say] go on, do you stuff, youve got a chance now Emery to put your team out there, to work with your team. Youve had five, six weeks of pre-season, go on and get on with it.

We all want him to be successful. We all want his team to be resilient and challenge for the league title, but at the moment, realistically, we are nowhere near.