It’s now seventeen months since Unai Emery took the helm at the Emirates. The clear objective set for him at the start was ‘progress’, the enormity of the task facing him was known to all hence the board did not want to mount the pressure of certain expectations on him. Amidst the objective of ‘progress’ was the clear goal of a top 4 finish which was, ultimately, unfulfilled.
This season, Unai Emery has, once again, been charged to do what was expected of him last season, this time, he was better equipped. He lost the top 4 battle by a point and an additional €150m worth of players were added to his armory to make up that 1 elusive point. Irrespective of the re enforcement , some how, Unai Emery is failing, even more disastrously.
Arsenal started the season with 2 wins in a row, unconvincing wins but at the time who really cared? New seasons always come with some elements of bluntness and sometimes fatigue in players, given some have not played competitive games for months and some have played quite too much. Since then, however, Arsenal have only managed 2 other victories from 11 games, that is a distastous return for a team of Arsenal’s pedigree, for any team anyways. As of writing, Arsenal are sitting 7th, potentially 8th if Manchester United wins their game, and are 10 points behind the Champions League places.
The Arsenal board have continuously backed Unai Emery, publicly at least, despite the continuous dropping of winnable points. The embarrassment at Leicester City should have been the final straw but, surprisingly, Unai Emery kept his job, two weeks on and Arsenal have to chase a game at home against a team who had been able to muster 1 point in their last seven games, languishing in the 19th position of the Premier League table.
The question right now is, is this the last time we get to see Unai Emery in the touchline gnashing his teeth after watching his team concede yet another ridiculous goal? What next for Arsenal and Unai Emery?
