Arsenal icon Tony Adams now makes huge Unai Emery claim after Arteta ‘mistakes’

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Arsenal legend Tony Adams believes the club would have won the Premier League title last season had Unai Emery still been in charge.

Arsenal emerged as surprise title contenders last season. The Gunners led the way at the top of the table for the majority of the campaign.

However, Mikel Arteta’s side faltered on the final stretch. A combination of title race inexperience and injuries to key players saw Arsenal drop vital points, allowing eventual champions Manchester City to overtake them. 

The north London club now find themselves at the top of the Premier League table once again, albeit with a long way still to go in the season. Even so, the Gunners will be gearing up for another title race, and Arteta will be determined not to repeat the mistakes of the previous term.

Arsenal spent heavily in the recent summer transfer window to bolster their squad, and generate greater strength in depth. Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber, and David Raya were all added to the Gunners’ ranks.

The experience gained last season, in going toe-to-toe with Manchester City, will also stand Arsenal in good stead this time around. This team now know what to expect when it comes to dealing with the pressures and strains of being involved in a title race.

Tony Adams believes Unai Emery would have outdone Mikel Arteta

Tony Adams believes that the manager’s lack of prior title race experience, and the “mistakes” he therefore made, cost Arsenal last season. The iconic former defender, who won four league titles over the course of his 672 appearances for the club, has now given his verdict on where Arteta went wrong.

Speaking to talkSPORT, Adams said of Arteta, “I love him. I love his passion and enthusiasm. I’ve always said he’s a little bit inexperienced and perhaps needs to draw on someone in his staff who is a little more experienced.”

“I’m talking about going across the line last season.”

“We all make mistakes and aren’t perfect. He perhaps didn’t rotate players early enough last season. People were running out of steam.”

Adams then went on to say, “last year, weirdly, if Unai Emery was our manager, then we could have perhaps won the league.”

Unai Emery is certainly an accomplished and successful manager, with plenty of silverware on his record. However, things did not exactly work out for him during his tenure as Arsenal boss. He was not a natural fit for the club, or at least he wasn’t at the time in which he was in charge.

There is evidence to suggest that he too would have struggled to cope with the pressures of the title race. After all, in his only full season in charge of the club, he failed to secure Champions League qualification despite Arsenal having it in their own hands at one stage. His Arsenal side were also thrashed by Chelsea in the Europa League final that very same season.