Recently I have heard nothing but bitching and moaning from Arsenal fans about how much Unai Emery is failing to make any difference whatsoever compared to former seasons, well I think it’s about time someone stood up in defence of the guy.
He has done a brilliant job to get this bunch of under-achieving, overpaid, pampered journeyman to start playing like they actually want to win games, rather than just pick up their massive wage packets every week. (You know how tiring that can be!) It has not been easy, and we know the players have had trouble understanding his instructions as big wages just not necessarily equate to the intelligence levels, so we should actually be happy that we haven’t actually regressed.
As Emery said just today: “I use a lot of information about the previous years in the Premier League table of other teams and also our team, and we are doing our way. Now with the 47 points we have in the table, in the last four years there’s only one other time Arsenal have had the same points in this moment. Three years ago Leicester were first in the table with 50 points, and sometimes the table gives us more chances with 47 points, and sometimes it’s giving us less. This year Manchester City and Liverpool are very hard and strong, and after that it’s Tottenham. Chelsea and Manchester United are together with Arsenal, but our points are good. We need to improve defensively, but we need to continue with our way in doing that.”
Come on, everyone thought there would be years of transition to rebuild the side after Wenger left, but we simply cannot ignore the fact that Emery is achieving as much as our legendary Wenger after just six months learning the job, despite hundreds of injuries and very little support in the transfer market.
Let us please give credit where it is due please.
Sam P