Unai Emery has played down his time at Arsenal and wants to focus on eliminating the Gunners from the Europa League when both teams meet in the semifinal.
Arsenal saw off Slavia Prague to set up a reunion with the first manager they named as a replacement for Arsene Wenger.
The former PSG boss took the Gunners to the final of the Europa League in 2019 and was fired last season after a poor start to the campaign.
He has been very successful in Europe’s second club competition and wants to win it with Villarreal in this campaign.
Arsenal stands in the way between his team and the final and both legs of the semifinal will bring about more comparison between his time at Arsenal and that of Mikel Arteta.
The manager was speaking after his team set up a date with the Gunners and says they are focused on going beyond the semifinal and he has no interest in his Arsenal history.
“Breaking the barrier of the semi-finals is the great challenge,” the manager told reporters as quoted by Football London. “The idea of reaching the Champions League through the Europa League is very important.
“When I signed here this was one more process. My past at Arsenal is less important.”
He added: “We want to continue to play our way, always respecting our rival and not speculating anything. We need to play to win and go into the match with the same sincerity that we’re currently showing.”
“The Specialist” is back with a vengeance…
He has a massive incentive to prove this club wrong in their decision making and Arteta has a duty prove himself as a better replacement, he has a better squad. This game for all sorts of reasons as big implications.
Would you have him back?
SueP, my argument is Emery was not supported by the Board and senior management (exemplified by head coach, rather than manager) and let go prematurely. Similar to Arteta he should have been given to the end of the season.
As far as having him back, that ship has sailed; Arsenal must move forward.
Sue P, no i wouldn’t but that is because he wasn’t the right fit for Arsenal. I might add, i thought he should have had a bit longer but thats life and we move on.
Examination of the Villarreal squad shows they are overachieving in both the Spanish League and the Europa League. This is down to the manager Unai Emery.
If Arsenal were to play Villarreal in a semi final of the Europa League with any other likely manager, I would be confident of a win given the relative strength of the Arsenal squad. However Emery has to be shown the respect he deserves with Villarreal, something many didn’t give him when head coach at Arsenal. If Arsenal don’t turn up with the same application, pace and intent that they did in Prague, they are in trouble.
Roma won’t be easy for Manchester United either.
Agree, some fans have attitude problems and will write off any team/coach before the kick off.Better our team goes into the game as under dogs and focus on those 90+ minutes alone, one game at a time.
And if Emery had 1/10th the ruthlessness of Mikel, when dealing with spoilt players, then he could have been here today, but nevertheless we have Mikel and he has a club with players and management which give him the respect his due.
Good luck to Mikel and the lads.
Villarreal finished 5th last season they now sit 7th in the poorest league the country has seen in decades so how can he be overachieving ,and as for the Europe league they should be reaching the latter stages as they finished 5th in the la liga same as we should be reaching the latter stages .
All I’m interested in is Arsenal not some ex boss who was a flop here ,good luck to him in his future endeavours but I couldn’t care less what he does TBH and I’m not sure why any Arsenal fan would tbh .
I think it’s fair to say I didn’t give him much respect after Baku, ozziegunner. At the time I couldn’t understand how a proven manager could have presided over such a horrible performance and when it went wrong in season 2, I lost faith. I couldn’t see it turning round. Perhaps the board were harsh and Arteta has been given an easier ride. However I concur with Loose Cannon’s last paragraph below
SueP and Loose Cannon, if you remember what transpired with Emery and “discipline”, when he dropped Mezut Ozil, Emery was forced to reinstate him. He was only head coach not manager and too many decisions were outside his hands. It is hard to get respect from the team, if you are not respected and supported by the Club hierarchy. There is no doubt that the German trio of Ozil, Mustafi and Kolasinac worked against Emery and certainly none of them put in. Luckily two are gone and Kolasinac is on loan.
As far as that final in Baku, Emery couldn’t play for the players. Based on some performances, if I owned the Club, they would have never worn an Arsenal shirt again.
The Europa League merchant.