Unai Emery has blamed the loss of Aaron Ramsey as a key component in his side’s failure to secure Champions League football for this season, but reality tells you that the midfielder was overlooked by Emery for much of the season.
The club went on an impressive run of form in early 2019, including an emphatic run of results in the Europa League earning a spot in the final.
Despite our form, we finished the campaign just one point off Tottenham Hotspur, and also narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Champions League places via the Europa League, suffering defeat to rivals Chelsea in the final.
Emery has now claimed that he was happy with his team as he ended the campaign showing heart and ‘personality’, but ultimately lost out in the latter part of the campaign with the loss of key player Aaron Ramsey.
He said: “The first season we did a lot well. I thought: ‘This is my team.’ People said: ‘Unai, we can see your personality in this side.’
“There was spirit, games with intensity, energy – Tottenham, Manchester United, Chelsea – and we reached Arsenal’s first [European] final in 13 years, playing very well against Napoli and Valencia.
“Finishing third was in reach but we lost four decisive points against Crystal Palace and Brighton.
“[At first] things went magnificently; there was a good spirit in the dressing room.
“Ramsey’s injury, when he was at his best, had a big influence: he conveyed positivity, so much energy. And playing a lot of important games in April without him, we needed 100% implicación from every player.”
I can’t help but NOT feel any sympathy for Emery however. I think it is cheeky of him to name Ramsey as a huge loss in our push to make the top four after he largely overlooked him throughout the early stages of the campaign, despite him being fit.
Ramsey started only 14 of the 38 Premier League matches in his last season with our club, and ultimately left the club on a free transfer to Juventus in the summer.
Whether Ramsey had already told the club that he was leaving at the end of his contract or not, you simply cannot afford to let your best players sit on the bench, but Rambo was sitting on the bench at the start of 17 PL matches.
It’s all well and good saying we would have had a better shot at winning the Europa League if we had Ramsey fit, but to blame us missing out by a point when he largely overlooked the Welshman is not going to fly with me.
Emery’s ex-girlfriend recently claimed that even she got blamed for his sacking from Arsenal, which further backs up my belief that he thinks he does no wrong.
Does the Spaniard need to look at himself more for where things went wrong? Would Ramsey’s regular inclusion in the starting line-up in the league have seen us secure a top-four spot?
Patrick
Forget that jerk.
Both parties are to blame,the club for losing important players and bad business in the transfers market,and Emery for bad tactics, selections and managing players!!Arsenal/Emery was just a bad combination!
Disagree. I think Unai and Emery was a bad combination.
The facts are that Emery had a decent start with Arsenal, including a 22 match unbeaten run, very luckily too if we are being honest. But it faded away and the first season ended on a huge low with a demoralising time for players, manager and esp us fans. The second season was a total disaster from begining until the day he was rightly sacked. He had lost the dresssing room and obviously so, well before his too late sacking.
HIS INABILITY TO SPEAK UNDERSTANDABLE ENGLISH, BY THEN SOME 18 MONTHS INTO THE JOB,WAS HIS OWN FAULT, NOT THE CLUBS . IT REEKS OF SOUR GRAPES AND I READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE IN TODAYS PAPER. GLAD HE HAS GONE, IS MY OPINION.
Yes, Jon. The last seven matches of EPL 2018/19 season (from Everton at Goodison and in) ruined everything. Not to talk about the Europa League final – which could have saved it with a Victory and a CL qualification. It’s a shame. I didn’t see the final against Chelsea, I had a feeling of the outcome and did something more funny…
The final was an embarrassment wasn’t it?
All they had to do was show a bit of fighting spirit against a team who had already qualified for the CL. I was absolutely livid
Once Giroud scored, I’m afraid I could watch no more! Behind the sofa it was 😄 gutted!! That took a while to get over..
I agree. That crystal palace loss was the watershed moment. Resting players cost him dear.
👍 spot on, Tolu… he was just out of his depth.
Oh, Jon, you old heretic! You blasphemer! You…
Robert, The word you are seeking is “REALIST”!
OT
Its starting……bundesliga
👍 Haaland in…
Why is sancho not playing🤔
A calf problem, so they said…
Boom!! Haaland has picked up where he left off!! Beautiful finish…
Not Upa either. Maybe “they” wont take any risks with the big stars. And this is a risky experiment. Nobody knows – in this very minute – if it was a good decision or not to start playing today on the 16th of May 2020. Only the future can tell.
I haven’t missed Steve Mcmanaman commentating 😜
That celebration though…😂
Nothings really changed in a game play aspect
I saw players spitting even so why maintain a social distancing in celebrations🤔
Doesn’t make sense does it?! 🤪
😄👍
Elbow celebrations!
Kev82… so much for your 2-1 prediction (I’m disappointed 😝)
Great game… that 4th goal, outside of the left foot – love it!! 👌 Thank you, Dortmund (& Schalke, they turned up!)
I bet they’re all absolutely shattered now 😀
The leipzig game was pretty good
It was pretty tense
I enjoyed it as well, bit weird atmosphere and all that but the game came across very competitive and entertaining
Emery definitely made some mistakes, but in his defense, he inherited a terrible squad, and joined the club as it was going through a huge transitional phase. Add to that the crazy amount of injuries as well.
Given the circumstances, Emery actually overachieved in his first season, before it all went quickly downhill this season.
I’m glad to see posts get deleted bc of my replies. There’s no room for religion bashing here. Thank you, Admin, for censoring hate.
There were players like ozil that shouldn’t have been there. And Wilshere has already said he was going to stay and was working on a new contract to sign if AW didnt decide to retire. Clearly a pattern of horrible decisions from the previous administration that carried over to Emery’s reign and I bet there were tons of other shenanigans going on too that we havent heard about. Tht said, Emery still has to take a huge amount of blame. He made bad choices with lineups, couldnt take control of the lockerrom and wasnt right for Arsenal. We need to look deeper though and see the structurally, the club is not set up for success.