Arsenal were soundly beaten my Pep Guardiola’s Man City side yet again, and the gulf between the sides is very plain to everyone. Only the most optimistic amongst us gave us any hope at all, and even Unai Emery made it clear before the game that he thought that Guardiola was the best manager around at the moment. He told Arsenal.com: “I have analysed a lot of teams and coaches and I think it’s difficult to find one coach who is better than Guardiola,”
“His career is a very big career. We started together. He started with the Barcelona second team, I started with Lorca after Almeria when he was starting to train.
“I learned a lot looking at his team. It’s good to look at each other when we are coaches to learn different things between us. I think in his career he doing the best in all the coaches in the world.
“He has had the possibility to take the best players at Barcelona, in Bayern and in City little by little. He is every year improving with great players and also paying a lot for some players. But he led them, at Barcelona, Bayern and City, one step more every place.
“This for me is the quality that makes me say he is the best.”
Guardiola has certainly led a charmed life. He joined Barcelona’s youth team when he was just 13 and grew into a side that won 6 La Liga’s and a European Cup in the ten years he was in the side. He came back after retirement as coach of the ‘B’ team and promptly won the Tercera Division and was promoted to replace Frank Rijkaard as first-team coach. He had an immediate impact and won the coveted treble in his first season. He won two more La Liga’s and one more Champions League before he left Barca.
At Bayern Munich he won three Bundesliga’s out of three, and at Man City he won the Premier League at his second attempt.
That list makes Emery’s one Ligue 1 title and three Europa League trophies look like small fry, so it is no wonder the Spaniard is in awe of his fellow countryman…
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