Former Arsenal boss Unai Emery has restored his reputation following his disastrous spell at the Emirates, and is currently flying high with Aston Villa.
The Spaniard managed Arsenal for 18 months following the departure of Arsene Wenger, but in that time his side finished fifth having been in a comfortable position to end the season in the top four, and were humiliated by Chelsea in the Europa League final.
He was sacked in November 2019, and would then go on to manage Villarreal, with whom he won another Europa League and reached the Champions League semi-finals before joining Aston Villa.
Villa are now just two points behind Arsenal, and this has led to some very high praise for Emery from Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher.
Carragher makes Unai Emery claim
Speaking on Sky Sports, Carragher claimed that Emery’s accomplishments with both Villa and beyond, make him the third-best manager in the Premier League behind Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.
“I think you could make an argument that Unai Emery is possibly the third-best manager in this Premier League,” he stated.
“You’ve probably got Klopp and Guardiola, Champions League winners, but when you actually look at the body of work of Unai Emery, not just at Aston Villa, but continually winning Europa League, with the teams he’s been at, even like Mikel Arteta and probably even Pochettino haven’t got that sort of CV, in terms of winning trophies.”
Is Unai Emery a better manager than Mikel Arteta?
Accomplishments speak for themselves, as Emery has 11 major trophies to his name compared to Arteta’s solitary FA Cup, but there is unlikely to be a single Arsenal fan who would swap Arteta for Emery right now.
Emery failed at Arsenal, and did not have the best time at Paris Saint-Germain, when trying to manage big names such as Mesut Ozil, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Clubs with underdog expectations suit Emery, with Villarreal and Aston Villa both enjoying his reactive style of football, which has bred success in knockout competitions, but his style was completely unsuitable for a club like Arsenal following years of Wenger’s fluid attacking play.
Despite Emery winning four Europa Leagues with Sevilla and Valencia, he never finished above seventh with either club in La Liga, highlighting how his philosophy is far more useful for a club with lower league expectations.
The football played during his tenure in North London, as well as the decisions he made over players departing and arriving, such as the controversial departures of Aaron Ramsey and Laurent Koscielny, led Arsenal into disaster, and it took a long time for Arteta to fix the mess he made.
Whilst Emery has had a successful career, and is enjoying life at Aston Villa, Arsenal are challenging for the title whilst playing a high level of football under Arteta, something which was unlikely to ever be possible if Emery had stayed for longer.
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