Unai Emery: He's not Pochettino but Aston Villa have always failed to the top

Unai Emery has been laughed off the Arsenal gate, but his time with the Gunners has done little to tarnish the reputation of one of the best managers in the world…

"The truth is, I felt lonely," Unai Emery said of his time at Arsenal.

Emery did a few things very well during his first spell in the Premier League, including giving early chances to Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli, and getting the most out of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who scored 31 goals in a full season. in charge.

In fact, if Aubameyang had scored one more goal, the penalty against Spurs, Emery would have brought the Gunners back to the Champions League after a two-year absence. If they hadn't instead crumbled in the Europa League final against Chelsea, the same feat would have been achieved.

But he has been mocked for his 'good ebenings' and criticized mainly for his misuse of unusable Mesut Ozil, and his failure to make the most of £72million summer signing Nicolas Pepe, who hasn't shown anything since Emery left to suggest his manager had something to do with his poor displays. By the way, William Saliba was also signed that summer, but Emery was not allowed to collect that particular award.

Since being sacked by Arsenal in November 2019, Emery has done what Emery does, adding his fourth Europa League title to his personal trophy cabinet with a penalty shootout victory over Manchester United in 2021, before going on to to take the Spanish team to the semi-finals of the Champions League. -finals of the last quarter.

With greater transfer influence, as was the case at Sevilla before having to bend to the wishes of Edu and Raul Sanllehi at Arsenal, Arnaut Danjuma, Juan Foyth and Giovani Lo Celso all arrived and thrived under his watchful and tactically astute eye. Let's get it right, even if you think he failed at debatable Arsenal despite things going horribly wrong towards the end, Emery remains a world-class manager; it's a real coup for Aston Villa.

The Villa owners' ambition means they arrived at Emery via Mauricio Pochettino and Thomas Tuchel, which may make some factions of Villa's backers feel slightly disappointed, but the Spaniard's appointment is still an incredible example of club failure. up.

The 4-0 win over Brentford on Sunday showed things were rather stale under Steven Gerrard, but also served as a reminder that this is a team full of Champions League-level players. And perhaps Emery's greatest skill among others is preparing his teams to make the most of those top players, with strikers typically prolific under his leadership.

Edinson Cavani and Neymar both had their most productive seasons at Paris Saint-Germain under Emery, as did Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette at Arsenal. And that bodes very well for Ollie Watkins and Danny Ings, whose goal-scoring potential far exceeds their actual production.

Another criticism leveled at Steven Gerrard's Aston Villa was the number of players appearing to be spares, both in terms of those on the pitch and those almost always watching from the touchlines. Gerrard had clear favorites, most of whom were getting more and more comfortable to the point of becoming ineffective.

It was particularly evident during Villarreal's Champions League run last season that all of Emery's players were keenly aware of their equal role in the smooth running of the team.

"I can assure you that Unai is a tactical mastermind," Danjuma said after his win over Bayern Munich. “His strategy always seems to work for us. We trust our manager and our manager trusts us. And it goes hand in hand."

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