Emery explains why he left out Arsenal’s new signings

Joe Williams
Unai Emery Arsenal

Unai Emery has explained why he left out his summer signings in Arsenal’s 1-0 win at Newcastle United.

New signings David Luiz, Nicolas Pepe and Dani Ceballos all started on the bench for the Gunners as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored the only goal of the game.

“I explained yesterday that the circumstances are different,” Emery told Arsenal.com. “David Luiz did pre-season with another team and he is okay to play physically but he only trained completely with us yesterday.

“On Friday he did 30 minutes with us. I was thinking to give them confidence to work together because they were working well together, Sokratis and Chambers.

“Nicolas Pepe came one week ago and physically he needs to get his best fitness to be ready to play 100 per cent for 90 minutes. I think that today 20 minutes is good for him.

“And Ceballos is in the middle because he came before Pepe but he got an injury and he stopped training. But he needs to know the Premier League, so today was important for him and for us.

“I also used Reiss Nelson and Willock because they deserved to be with us and to give them confidence can help us. It’s the same with Martinelli, he played the last 10 minutes because he deserved it.”