Sam Allardyce Slams Unai Emery's 'Rubbish' Tactics in Manchester City Loss

Former Everton boss Sam Allardyce has slammed Arsenal manager Unai Emery for his tactical approach in the 2-0 loss against Manchester City, referring to his style of play as "stupid" and "utter rubbish."

Appearing on talkSPORT (h/t Evening Standard's Alex Young), he didn't hold back one bit:

"What do Manchester City do? Press, press, press, so why do you try and play out [from the back]? Even the Arsenal crowd cheered when they dropped one in the opposition's half!

"You cannot just force 'the only way to play is this way' in this country.

"We're getting obsessed with this stupid 'let's play out from the back, split the centre-halfs either side of the 18-yard box and go and play from there'.

"It's utter rubbish to play like that all the time ... When you're the best you can do it."

Here is a video of Allardyce making the comments:

Defending Premier League champions City visited the Emirates Stadium for their first match of the new campaign on Sunday and cruised to a 2-0 win, with Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva finding the net.

The Gunners showed flashes under new manager Emery, but were undone by some sloppy defending and a lack of creativity in the attacking third. Like City, their focus was on building from the back, but the Sky Blues proved the better side with that style of play.

Emery faced some criticism after the match, but most was centred around the decision to start Petr Cech and Matteo Guendouzi. Both were partly at fault for Sterling's opener but recovered after that, putting together solid performances.

As expected, many were not impressed with Allardyce's comments:

Allardyce has been a regular around the Premier League for years, specialising in saving clubs from relegation. He briefly coached the English national team, before stepping down following what the Football Association announced as "inappropriate" conduct.

His last coaching position was with Everton, where he had mixed results. While he managed to right the ship for a struggling Toffees side, the improvements were marginal at best, and the fans quickly turned on him, per the Telegraph's Chris Bascombe.

He left the club in May and was replaced by Marco Silva.