Unai Emery has said that Arsenal never want to play against Liverpool in a ‘joke’ he’d have been better keeping inside his head.

Now, perhaps there’s some missing context or something but the fact is, these sorts of words are not the type any Arsenal manager should ever consider uttering. Even in jest.

It’s one thing to admit respect for an opponent, it’s expected even. Quite another to say, “For us, we don’t want to play against Liverpool ever. We’d prefer not to play against them.”

I got a some blowback on Twitter for my view that this isn’t the sort of thing an Arsenal manager should be saying, even as a joke. I should give him leeway because he’s only just learning English, or just stop being a ‘wet blanket’. I should applaud him for attempting a joke, not criticise the ‘joke’ itself.

We are two games into the season where Liverpool have scored six (twice as many as Arsenal) and conceded two (twice as many as Arsenal). We know they are a good team and the game will be hard.

But I never want to hear an Arsenal manager utter these words about any team, not Liverpool, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Shrewsbury Town.

The quotes were reported by AFP with the Independent added that he was ‘joking’.

It’s not funny. It’s the sort of crap a League One manager says before a cup-tie against us. I don’t even understand how it was meant to be funny.

If that’s the aim, learn some knock-knock jokes or something.