Good ebening. This phrase is synonymous with Unai Emery when he coached Arsenal. Okay, the intention is to say good evening, but because the pronunciation is a little too thick, the greeting becomes a mockery. Even though his words still sounded good evening, nevertheless, people – including the Gunners supporters – did not stop mocking him. At times, such trivial moments were used as weapons to mock Emery, especially when his team lost. From the start, a well-known coach in Spain, Emery became the scapegoat for Arsenal’s failure.
In his era, Arsenal did tend to appear disappointing. However, is it true that Arsenal’s failure was just Emery’s fault? In fact, at this time, Mikel Arteta is also having trouble lifting the performance of Granit Xhaka and his friends. On paper, when comparing results, Arteta is even worse than its predecessors. The former Everton midfielder has now guided the Gunners in 81 matches. The result is 43 wins and 23 losses for an average of 1.78 points per match. Meanwhile, Emery, during 2018-2019, led Arsenal in 78 matches with 43 wins, 20 defeats, and an average of 1.85 points per match.
However, unlike his predecessor, Arteta was still trusted. The former Arsenal captain still has support even though Arsenal have stumbled in the top 10 this season. Arteta has indeed won the 2020 FA Cup – a positive note for the club to defend it. However, in the cup competition, Emery also actually has his own achievements: guiding the club to the Europa League final in his debut season.
So, what made the club more patient with Arteta than his predecessors? After being sacked, Emery accused Arsenal of not providing adequate support. “There is no more commitment and unity at this club. That’s when I feel alone. The club left me, and there is no solution, “he told The Guardian in May 2020 ago. “At every club, I am always protected: Lorca, Almeria, Valencia, PSG. At Sevilla, I have Monchi [sporting director]. At PSG, Nasser al-Khelaifi protected me in the dressing room and in public. At Arsenal they didn’t. Maybe because they are used to Wenger doing everything, “he continued.
Unai Emery came to replace Arsene Wenger who has led the club for 22 years. Wenger changed things at Arsenal and became a legend. To replace someone as influential as him, Emery has a very tough task. Emery’s words above also have some truth. Arsenal will have to operate in a new way after Wenger’s death. His status at the Gunners is a manager, has broader authority and responsibility in club management. Meanwhile, Emery arrived as head coach. The former Valencia coach considers Wenger “doing everything” at Arsenal and the club has not completely abandoned this approach when he came to the Emirates.
At first, Arsenal believed that Emery was the right person to lead a project of this size because of his classy portfolio. He once brought Almeria promotion to La Liga for the first time. At Valencia, he also brought Los Che to third place in La Liga three times in a row. Emery’s most phenomenal achievement was when he led Sevilla. Together with Los Nervionenses, the Basque coach won the Europa League for three consecutive seasons – the only coach in the world who has been able to do so. At Paris Saint-Germain, despite failing in the continental arena, Emery managed to win six domestic titles in two seasons.
“I’ve been following Emery’s career from his Valencia days and he’s always been on my radar. He has a fantastic record of success wherever he goes. And interestingly, one of the things worth noting about the Unai team is that they are always improving, “said Arsenal CEO in 2018 Ivan Gazidis during Emery’s appointment.
However, Gazidis missed one thing: Emery tends to fail when dealing with foreign teams. He has indeed made brilliant achievements with Lorca, Almeria, Valencia and Sevilla. But he failed miserably at Spartak Moscow. Together with Les Parisiens, he has indeed succeeded in dominating the domestic competition. However, in Europe, PSG always failed in the last 16 of the Champions League.
Emery took charge of the Paris club when they had one of the most humiliating matches in club history: La Remontada. With Spartak, the situation was even worse. Emery was sacked after 26 games. His record at Spartak is 12 wins and 11 losses with an average of just 1.5 game points. Spartak even lost 1-5 to Dinamo Moscow, city rivals who are actually more inferior.
In foreign leagues, Emery tends not to “tame” the dressing room. He failed to handle the PSG star players. His relationship with the Spartak squad was not harmonious. Spartak’s key player, Artem Dzyuba even demeaned him at the press conference. The same thing happened at Arsenal. Emery was involved in friction with Mesut Ozil. He also failed to optimize talented players like Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Overall, he failed to become an authoritative figure in the dressing room.
For this, Emery complained about the absence of a leader figure who could control the dressing room. Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal, Aaron Ramsey and Petr Cech – four of Emery’s selected captains – left the club in early 2019/20. He then chose Granit Xhaka as captain. This decision was quite controversial, especially after Xhaka got into a confrontation with supporters.
One of Emery’s problems at foreign clubs is communication. His experience as a tactician is very broad. However, the way he communicated, either within the club or to the public, was ineffective. “I have decent English, although I need to improve. But when the results [match] are bad the situation is not the same. You lack the linguistic depth to explain. Take ‘good ebening’ for example: OK, that [means] ‘good evening’, but when I say ‘good ebening’ and [Arsenal] win it’s funny; when we lost it was a disgrace, ”said the former Almeria coach.
In contrast, Arteta is better at communication than its predecessors. According to The Athletic’s report, in the Emery era, the synergy between departments was not optimal. Communication problems made Emery fail to not only embrace players, but also staff. “Unai lives in his skull; Mikel can involve other people, “said an Arsenal staff member to The Athletic.
Arteta and Emery have produced identical results, but Arsenal consider Arteta to be better in terms of management. Arteta still has support even though the Gunners are stranded in the Premier League. However, Emery is unlikely to regret Arsenal’s dismissal. Now, he returns to his hometown and leads the Villarreal project. This season, Emery managed to bring El Submarino Amarillo to sixth place in La Liga to jornada 34.
Villarreal welcomed him openly. This time, Emery was able to bring control in the dressing room and bring the squad to a great performance. They were even able to qualify for the semi-finals of the Europa League. At the time of writing this article, Emery’s men have a 2-1 aggregate advantage over his former club, Arsenal.
“Unai has succeeded in uniting the squad; every player that comes in adapts very well to his system. He was very close to the players, very humanist. He’s comfortable trying out different groups of players, different systems, in different matches against different opponents. Everything is going well for him [Emery] for now, “said Villarreal legend who is now a club staff, Marcos Senna. Villarreal and La Liga are better places for Unai Emery. Abroad, failure has always earned him less respect. However, in Spain, the coach can always prove himself to be a superior tactician.
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