How would you rate Emery’s first 3 months at Arsenal? (out of 10)

How well has Emery done so far? by AndersS

We are nearing the completion of the first 3 months of Emery’s reign as a manager.

In business you have an unofficial rule not to expect a new CEO to come forward with big decisions and big changes the first 100 days in charge. Ample time is given to the new “chief” to assess the state of affairs and to decide how he wants to move forward, including time to decide if he needs changes to his key personnel.
A reasonable and mostly well working “rule”.

But not so often used when it comes to football managers. They are mostly expected to produce results straight away, or at least to show clear changes in performance, that promise better results in the near future.

So how has Emery done so far, with less than 100 days in charge?

The team he took over was in a downward spiral, which started at least 2 seasons ago, and we had just finished the season in sixth place, a massive 37 points behind the league winners and 12 points behind the famous fourth place, which many used to see as a minimum target.

We routinely not only lost to other teams competing for top 4, but recently also got humiliated in those matches.

Players were showing obvious signs of giving up in matches, when we fell behind.

Reports have afterwards shown, what many suspected, training had become undemanding and unmotivating for the players.

Players had lost a lot of confidence.

Even bottom of the league teams had lost all fear of playing against Arsenal, and actually considered Arsenal an easy team to play against, as there was no organized defending.

This is where Arsenal was, when Emery took over on July 1’st.

When taking over he had 6 weeks before Arsenal was to start the new season against Man City, who incidentally admitted to holding back when beating us 3-0 in the spring. And then facing an away game to Chelsea the following week. 2 matches, that could easily end up in 2 losses and put him under some pressure, which indeed was, what happened.

If that wasn’t enough, he was also without several key players for big parts of the preseason training and matches.

Taking all this into account, you could argue, Emery has done unbelievably well so far.

Sure, we are only in 6’th place in the league, but we are only 6 points from no. 1 and we are 1 point from no. 4, and considering that Chelsea, Man C and Liverpool have only played one match against another “Big Six” team, our situation is in theory better than, what the table shows.

However, all is not good. Looking more closely at our performances, it is so obvious that our old habit of giving away too many chances, even to mediocre teams, is still not showing signs of going away, and eventually that will cost us many points, if we don’t improve.

Should we already have seen improvements in that area? Or are we in a situation, where our players are so bad at defending, it can only be improved long term, and maybe only with several players replaced?

I believe Emery is well aware of the problem, but he doesn’t want to turn us into a team “parking the bus”, which most likely would give much fewer chances to the opposing team. He wants us to be able control the game, to attack and defensively to have the whole team adopt high pressing and hard work. I like that.

It is too early to conclude if Emery will permanently improve us, as we all hope.

But for his work so far, I will give him 8 out of 10, or maybe even a 9.

How do rate his work so far?

Anders Sørensen

42 Comments

    1. I would rate him 8 out 10 so far. The team is improving gradually and they have improved to about 7 out of 10, as they understand what needs to be done to get better!
      Dee M

  1. I think he has changed the mentality already. The last two games we would probably not have won last season. It will take two or three transfer windows to get the players he wants, particularly defensively. Top 4 this season would be a minor miracle but if we can see improvement in motivation and effort then he is making progress. At the moment I would say 8 out of 10 as he has achieved as much as could reasonably be expected.

  2. 7, considering the team he has currently and he won two away games against mediocre teams

    If he can win until he meets Liverpool, I will give him 9

  3. A six out of ten .As our perfomences are just papering over the craks.Not a big différence to last year bar a slight improvement on away form.

  4. 7/10.

    We have 2 points more than we had last season at this point. We had lost to Stoke and Liverpool, 1-0 and 4-0. We had drew Chelsea 0-0 and won B’mouth, WBA and Leicester.

    That was 9/9 points at home.
    1/9 points away.

    So I would say our away form has improved drastically!

    18-19:
    12/18 points
    12-9 GD

    17-18:
    10/18 points
    9-8 GD

    16-17:
    13/18 points
    15-7 GD

    15-16:
    10/18 points
    5-5 GD

    14-15:
    10/18 points
    11-7 GD

  5. Six but I doubt if any Manager could have done better given the weaknesses in the squad he inherited from Wenger.That said I’m disappointed that he has continued to play Bellerin, Mustafi and to a lesser extent Xhaka when he has other options available.

    1. I consider Bellerin as our best attacking right back and Mustafi as our best central defender currently

      Mustafi just made one big error so far and Bellerin improved tremendously in attacking

      Xhaka is still last season’s Xhaka, but the other CM has taken his defending duties (Guendouzi/ Torreira) and he has been given more chances in taking dead balls

  6. I will not cheapen this debate and play silly marking out of ten games. That is to cheapen debate to the level of the ghastly “red tops” newspapers. Let us look sensibly and with cool and adult heads at the various pros and cons since the season began. Cons, as I see them are these: A desperate lack of quality defenders left behind; a scarcity of funds available to buy real proven quality, esp in the desperately needed defence; a difficult to change laissez faire attitude among the majority of players, where laziness and poor form has been tolerated, even (indirectly) encouraged, by his predecessor; a lack of belief in the squad that we can or even SHOULD seriously challenge for the title, year in year out. A lack of pride in the shirt, in fact.

    Pros: A new ethic based on organisation and hard work installed from day one; a better behind the scenes set up, with real football people at last making key decisions, except on funds available, which is a major handicap to them all; an acceptance of the fact that defence is a key part of any successful team, which Wenger never accepted; a man in charge who is pragmatic rather than idealistic and will put results above mere style (what style, under Wenger, you might well ask!); a decade long overdue buying of a real quality CDM; Emery’s other buys all looking good thus far, apart from the untried Leno who has had zero chance to shine and Licht , who has had little more than that chance too; a manager(or head coach , if you prefer mere job “titles”) with a hunger and winning pedigree that was distincly lacking in Wenger for the last decade. Essentially, that is show I see things. It is early days; VERY early delays and to mark him NOW , is to my mind, far too premature and meaningless. We must be and are fully behind him and must not expect miracles, esp with the huge handicap of Kroenke, holding him back. I also think him likely to be a far better judge of talent than was Wenger. Wenger bought a long string of dud defenders going back many years and left us the awful defence we have right now. I just do not see the new team , with Emery , bringing in duds like Mustafi, Elneny and leaving them here for years whilst just regressing the team. All in all, I am cautiously hopeful in the medium term and consider he has impressed, so far!

    1. jon, I agree with your summation; too early yet to give a simple marking. Unai Emery is certainly instilling a hard work ethic and combative mindset, despite the shortcomings of some players. As my dear departed father used to say ” the harder I worked the luckier I got” – true in sport as well as life in general.

  7. 6/10 which is pretty good for a manager who has to take over such a big role. The tough games got to us, but we’ve been perfect point-wise since. The performances have been average overall, but winning games is a huge plus right now. He definitely needs more transfer windows to assemble the type of squad he actually wants. Defense remains biggest concern, midfield has some balancing issues as well. Long term problems that will hopefully be addressed soon. Not horrible, not amazing. I still need to see the direction he’s taking the side though. Sometimes it can still feel like an Arsene Wenger team and we don’t really know what to do with the ball. Something I do like is that we do less side passes and attempt to get the ball up field a bit faster now

  8. Why the f**k should I rate a man when he is just a few weeks into a project. If the club was my play thing, I’d at the very least give my man a decent time frame. Never really liked unai Emery, but now he is the one calling all the shots. Give him everything and then decide if he is . Honestly, I give my f*-“-“!”g support to unai, the f@$+King Yanks are the ones we should find a way to boot.

    1. You have said exactly what Jon Fox has said but in a different language.I much prefer your take as I can understand better what you are saying

      1. Phil, I think I said rather more than invisible did, don’t you? Though we did agree it is far too early to mark his stay so far. Impressions only can be gleaned from such a short time.

  9. He’s taken on a huge job, taking over from Arsene… I don’t think he’s done too badly considering the money he had to spend. Yes we have to ‘make do’ with these players until January… but slowly it’s coming together….. onwards & upwards as they say!

  10. ten out of ten for me. any body , yes , anybody, is better than the previous manager who almost drove us into the ground with his crossfield passing policy.

  11. I do not feel it’s fair to judge Emery just yet. Everyone will have different time frames, but I will not start judging until next season.

    That being said, if I’m backed into a corner, I’d give him 7, or maybe even 7.5 out of 10. Chelsea, and City were always a massive ask in your first 2 competitive games, especially with what Emery inherited. Despite that tough start, we should have got something at Chelsea, and we’ve won EVERY game since. There’s definitely been a big improvement in our attacking play as well.

    Just so pleased it was Emery, and not Arteta!

  12. Emery spent around Euro 20 million for a goal keeper, who is till now benched.
    At the same time he loaned out Ospina. What sense makes this.
    Why not spend this money to address the real problem which is the defense and has not been solved.
    He also extended the contract of Xhaka who has proven not to be up to the standards of the EPL.
    A new playing style is said to be introduced but I only see a style which is not that attractive to watch as the free flowing Arsenal style of the past.
    I only see confused players who don’t play by their skills but try to follow instructions which in several cases don’t fit them.
    A trainer should use the available players to the best but at this moment a lot of talent is wasted.
    Till now Emery has not proven to be capable to do the Arsenal job.
    I still hope for improvements but fear the worst as the game against Everton was a teriible performance.

    1. Very harsh on Unai Emery after 3 months as coach, following a manager, who had been at the Arsenal for 23 years.

    2. I think you re too bias or too blind to see the impact the bended Leno is having on the team. who do you think is responsible for the sudden Chelseaque form of Cech this season. If you re Cech and you see a new coach spent that much on a player in your position it is either you shape up or you ship out. Cech shaped up and rise to the challenge while Ospina shipped out. As for Xhaka re you seriously saying you don’t see the improvement and impact the Emery is having on him.

    3. Did you really expect Emery or anyone else, even Guardiola perhaps, to be a miracle man? Seems to me you did! Life doesn’t work that way. Sorry to introduce you to the realism facts of football life. At what precise moment then, in his less than two months since season began , did you decide he was not up to the job! I would be keen to know! A foolish post.

  13. Arsenal under Emery has proven to be a better team now when under Wenger. The overall performance has stabilized and improving. I’m sure all Arsenal fans would love to see more victories and progress. I would rate Emery a 9 out of 10.

  14. I would give Emery a mark slightly above 5 say 6.

    Summary:
    Making early substitutions BUT all created by his dangerous squad selections.
    Benching big-name players BUT still some non-talented players are given a blind eye.

    Conclusion:
    – The squad has players who are or have been captains at club and/or country e.g. Sokratis (Dortmund), Aubameyang (Gabon), Mkitaryan (Armenia), Koscielny (Arsenal), Lichtsteiner (Switzerland), Xhaka (Monchenglabach). No other team has that many; so Emery should make this work for us!!!!

    – Reminder to the fans: WE ARE “THE ARSENAL” and we should be winning most games easily the way city do it rather than riding on luck the way the manager is doing it!!!!

    – The manager has all the players in the world to take arsenal to the top. As with any other team, no team has 100% in every position. However in our case we only need (1) A top midfielder (Ever Banega) (2) Top winger (Kingsley Coman)
    This doesn’t mean the manager cannot use what is at his disposal effectively.

    – Example if he were to choose these players (Cech, Lichtsteiner, Mavropanos, Monreal, Sokratis, Torreira, Mkitaryan, Iwobi, Ozil, Aubameyang, Lacazette) there would not be any single reason why we wouldn’t be at the top of the table by now.

    – However his constant choice for Ramsey, Xhaka, Bellerin are really hurting us big time. And don’t tell me they score once in a while!! Big players (Kante, Kovacic, Matic etc arent gauged on their goals return because their sole aim is to protect the back four. That’s why I even rate Stanislas (Bournemouth) higher than Ramsey. Actually Arsenal (aside from Torreira) have the weakest defensive midfield in the league because non of them can tackle or man-mark.

    – I urge the manager to make more intelligent selections, otherwise sooner we will lose for sure.

  15. 7 outta 10. Its a big job and added is is that we have 2 world class strikers that will score goals. That and a few up for it DMFs. I just hope the defenders get their act together before Xmas. #COYG

  16. He’s really done well and has improved the team so far. Arsenal can only get better under him. After all the fear that we will do a man u post Wenger as they did post Ferguson is going to rest nw. I rate him 7/10

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