Arsenal legend Tony Adams insists he believes the Gunners could have won the Premier League last season if Unai Emery was their manager.
Arsenal mounted an unexpected title challenge and were at the top of the league standings for over 200 days.
In the end, they dropped valuable points and Manchester City overtook them to become the champions of England.
The Citizens are a much more experienced team and it helped make them champions.
However, Adams believes the inexperience of Arteta and his coaching staff was a reason why the Gunners did not win the league, and Emery would have made them champions.
Adams told Talk Sport: “I love him [Arteta]. I love his passion and enthusiasm. I’ve always said he’s a little bit inexperienced and perhaps needs to draw on someone in his staff who is a little more experiences.
“I’m talking about going across the line last season.
“We all make mistakes and aren’t perfect. He perhaps didn’t rotate players early enough last season. People were running out of steam, like Bukayo Saka. I think he’s doing great.
“Last year, weirdly if Unai Emery was our manager then we could have perhaps won the league.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Because the Premier League is a marathon, not a sprint, experience greatly results in winning the competition.
City has it in abundance, and it helped them secure the title ahead of us.
However, Emery had his chance and failed so not sure what Adams is on about.
I also fancy Arteta would probably win that europa league final against chelsea.
Watching villa beat the spuds today and how he’s transformed that club, I suggest TA might have a very good point.
The problem was that, during Unai’s time, he wasn’t the manager, had players thrust upon him and didn’t get the financial backing of the owners – unlike MA.
Neither was he accepted by the bulk of the fanbase (in my opinion) being mocked for his accent amongst other things.
I agree with Tony, but we have to remember, in his scenario, Unai would be inheriting Mikel’s work and would he have been able to build the spirit and team that MA had last season?
Crystal ball time – but Aston Villa gives us a guide, wouldn’t you say?
I thought at the time Emery was a perfect fit for Arsenal. But, circumstances and a poorly run and wrongly funded club, didn’t give a base for success. I suppose the Kronkies learned a lot from, what happened. Especially when Emery (the man they let go) spanked Arteta in the EL. With an inferior team. I think everyone learned something from that experience.
Emery had plenty of financial backing and several players players were brought in during his time;
Tierney, Pepe, Guendouzi, Torreira, Sokratis and more.
Otherwiaw, I agree with your points.
Emery for one didn’t want Pepe, he wanted Zaha. The players were bought for him. Plus with the exception of Pepe, there are no 100 mil plus players or 50 mil plus players in the rest.
It is rubbish to claim there wasn’t financial backing for Emery. There was plenty. He simply didn’t do well.
I agree with you Anders, he didn’t do well and he didn’t sort out the mess, which made it even more complicated to do well. When he left he had lost the dressing room and had very little support left from the players.
Thats because the “mess” was not his job. He was the coach. Get your facts right.
Really, did they hire him because they needed a laughing stock?
Its not Rubbish!!!!! The truth is AND LOOK AT OUR PREVIOUS SEASONS SPENDING TO PROVE IT. Emery was not garnished with the type of finance that our present manager is getting. And Emery didn’t have the same clout as Arteta as to which players he wanted. Emery was bought in as a coach, Arteta was made manager, BIG difference. Arsenal realised the big mistake they made after Wenger and put it right.
The discusion is about whether Emery had financial backing, and he had plenty.
Not only did Arsenal spend huge sums on new players for him, Arsenal also kept a squad big enough and expensive enough for the CL, although we didn’t have the income from CL.
Lack of spending was simply not why mery failed.
We lost the league because during the whole season Manchester City was a better team. We could have had a chance if we had kept our best player available for selection. In addition do City have Haaland the fastest player to 50 PL goals (1,5 season). I don’t understand how Emery could have changed the history. He took us to Baku but didn’t manage to influence significantly when he had the chance.
@Didrik Plehn
Read the article , in case you didn’t. Tony laid it out short and sweet why he thinks we blew the title last season. And I fully agree with him. We were the better team for over 200 days, then we came undone. A more experienced manager would have capitalised on that and brought us over the finish line. I’m also sure had it been Emery, he would have delivered us the League title…
I beg to disagree as it’s all supposition. He may have produced a league winning team but to suggest that he would have is not proven
Do I recall correctly of the heady days of a long unbeaten run during Emery’s time and then it all disintegrated? On his success at Aston Villa- that is undeniable. He may get them into the top 4 but equally, he may not. Not worth worrying about at this stage.
Sorry, we lost to a better club, the best club in the World. All the rest is just useless excuses and pathetic speculations. Manchester City was the best club, and like most big clubs they are finishing their season stronger than their opponents.
But we had then buried and still let them survive. The way the team was managed towards the end was poor. Many mistakes made. That is what Adams is referring too. A top manager would not have made so many under pressure.
Nothing but useless speculations and hindsight.
“However, Emery had his chance and failed”… What sort of chance was Emery really given, in comparison to Mikel?
Tony is right in every aspect of his assessment. RealTalk right there…
Emery, given the tools is a top top manager. The club was not right when he took over. AND he was the coach, NOT manager. So had less say in what happened to players. I think the club has learned from that.
You agree with Tony. I’m afraid this does not make him right. From Tony’s previous comments it is clear he has never fully respected Arteta.
The idea that if, in some kind of parallel universe, we had replaced Arteta with Emery we would have won the league is fanciful if not absurd.
Emery is a very good manager. He is to be respected for what he has achieved at Aston Villa. However, he had his chance at Arsenal, and we have to move on rather than engage in unnecessary hypothetical scenarios.
Its not about right or wrong David. Its about opinion. Adams gives his opinion and the fact we failed to finish what we started, gives him a vehicle to project the fact, that an experienced manager could well have finished the job off. Fact Arteta didn’t. Opinion Emery could have. But it doesn’t mean he would have. Do you not get opinion?
I’m afraid you are displaying your obvious bias. I responded to someone who claimed that Tony was “right”. Anyone can state an opinion it does not make them right. And I will challenge any such comments if I choose to.
I also stand by my original comment.
You are wrong Reggie, if I remember very well, last season, Arteta was leading with 8pts gap and city had like 3 outstandings( Arsenal included at the etihad stadium), so city had the chance of winning it.
There was a season, Klopp was 8points ahead of city too and city finally won the league that season.
You can not predict until it is over, what makes you guys think Emery will still not fall this season with villa.
Please let’s enjoy our boys with Arteta and leave Emery alone where he is suited….
David, you are SO right to point out the POINTLESSNESS of wasting time on unprovable , either way, of HYPOTHETICALS.
As the arch realist of all on JA, I have never understood and never will either, WHY SO MANY prefer to indulge themselves in pointless and unprovable mere SPECULATION about what MIGHT have been , in preference to dicsussing what IS now and what is REALISTIC. Reality for me every time.
Perhaps this preference for REAL things,is why I have no time for TV and films about fantasy fiction ; Harry Potter and Dr Who and such like fantasy nonsense.
Others are of course free to choose whatever fantasy they like to discuss, just as I AM ALSO FREE TO STATE I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY THEY BOTHER.
I have time ONLY for reality or at least real probability, where Arsenal is concerned.
Well Jon. Its such a boring article that we’ve had a over 100 comments. Plus your totally useless contribution to the debate…
😂😂
I thought Emery was a good choice when we hired him, and I have much respect for the man.
He made one big mistake not sorting out the mess. Arteta did, he took the unpleasant job to sort it out, and it has been crucial for the tremendous development we have had.
If Arteta leave a new manager will be in a much better place than Emery and Arteta was when they signed.
Didrik, he was the COACH, not the MANAGER.
He had no control over who came and went, otherwise Zaha would have been an Arsenal player and we wouldn’t have spent £72,000,000 on a player he didn’t want.
Also, MA was given the go ahead to let players such as Ozil and Aubemeyang to leave, while given upwards of £700,000,000 to spend on the players HE wanted.
There can be no comparison between the two, but I just watch how he’s MANAGING Villa and admire what he’s doing.
Didrik, he was NOT the manager. Get your facts right!!!!!!!!
Haha, he was definitely responsible for our performances on the pitch. He was our head coach, just a method to decrease his salary.
Can understand what the Arsenal legend is implying, but he’s overlooking a very important fact.
Every where you look in the Citizens squad there are serial winners, The likes of Kevin de Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva, Ryad Mahrez and John Stones have all been there before.
These men knows how to raise their game when the stakes are highest, driven by desires to break records while maintaining a strong hold on the football landscape.
So Jack Wilshire as their gaffer could win the league with Citizens with his first bite at the cherry
Been saying this for years.
People don’t understand opportunity cost and how it affects outcomes.
@PJ-SA
RealTalk 👍🏾
Well my take is that no manager could have guaranteed us the cup when VAR robbed us of points against Brentford last term.
Had Emery been the VAR official on the day then perharps i would agree.
This is stupid from Adams, it is impossible to compare. Emery is a defensive manager and would have signed very different players from the ones Arteta signed and played last year, The only thing we know is that Emery failed and played awful football when coaching Arsenal.
Though blowing an 8 or 9 point lead with 10 games to go is still a hard pill to swallow, thinking that Emery would be able to get us over the finishing line seems overly hypothetical.
Personally I always felt that Emery is a great tactician while Arteta is a great disciplinarian. The former is more gifted at adapting his tactics to make do with the players he’s got, while the latter is great at getting rid of players that does not suit his style and garnering support from the owner to bite the bullet and terminate multimillion contracts of unsuitable players.
In a way, I think the sacking of Emery was a blessing in disguise. It made the higher ups at the club realized that we were in a bigger mess than we were ready to admit. Appointing another manger is not going to solve the problem without giving the new guy ample time and abundant financial resources to turn things around. Emery’s sacking indirectly paved a path of more patience for Arteta to rebuild
Emery is a very good manager, without a doubt.
But he clearly failed at Arsenal, and the facts suggest, he would never have got us into a position as the only team challenging Man C for the title in the first place.
Suggesting, otherwise is fantasy league.
But he wasn’t a manager at Arsenal – he was a coach!!!
Why is that so hard to understand?
Why is so hard to understand, Emery was given plenty of financial backing, not only with new player brought in but also with keeping very high salay players like Ôzil and Auba? You seem to forget, that although we had lost a lot of income with no CL football, the owners invested heavily in both keeping the “stars” and bringing in new players.
I am not trying to put Emery down. His CV is impressive. But he failed at Arsenal.
Don’t rewrite history!
Yes Anders BUT look at the real reason he “failed,” at Arsenal. He wasn’t in charge of the club, he was the coach and dont try and tell us he had the financial backing our manager now is getting because that is grossly untrue. No manager in the history of Arsenal has had the financial package Arteta is working under.
Your rewriting history by saying UE bought in players and kept players – he was the COACH not the MANAGER.
It is fact that he wanted to sign Zaha – he was refused that and was given Pepe.. fact or fiction Anders?
Your right, the OWNERS invested heavily in keeping high earners, not Emery.. fact or fiction Anders?
The history you claim I’m rewriting is very straightforward:
Emery was appointed as the coach.
Arteta was appointed as the manager.
Is that fact or fiction Anders?
I’m not trying to put EITHER UE or MA down, just getting the facts right – was the former a more experienced manager than the latter?
It would have been interesting to see Ken, how Arteta would have managed as a coach (no say in players) after Wenger, working under the regime and conditions Emery had too. And Emery working under the present set up and manager, being afforded more clout/say in players. I think any sane person can see, that Arteta is working under far more freedom of spending and team responsibility than Emery and Arsenal learned from their own errors.
Reggie, what this all boils down to is, once again, not being able to give an opinion that MIGHT seem to question MA.
We saw how Mikel did perform as the coach, when he won the fa cup – a brilliant achievement.
What I don’t get, is why fans cannot see that MA has been given a golden chalice and he has grabbed it with both hands and, while making mistakes along the way, is becoming an excellent manager…. he needs to start winning the big trophies in order to cement that brilliant work.
The club itself is so different to when AW and UE were there, the kronkie’s finally having decided to back up their manager.
As you and I continually say, words like those from Tony, are opinions and he has every right to voice them.
👍
Yes, they started to invest in our club when they got full control of Arsenal FC in August 2018.
You are the one saying Emery didn’t have financial vbacking, but it is rubbish. The fact, that he couldn’t decide exactly which players he got, is perfectly normal. Arteta hasn’t gotten ll the players, he seems to have wanted.
Emery spent plenty of money with the recruiting team and on the players, that were kept on on massive salaries.
It is a really bad case to claim the reason he failed was lack of financial backing, because it clearly wasn’t so.
It is not perfectly normal to be given players you DON’T want Anders.
When he was announced as the coach, the three wise men and Gazidis had already signed or were in the throes of signing Aubemeyang (31/1/2018)Sokratis (2/7/18) Mkhitaryan (22/1/18) Lichtsteiner (5/6/18) Leno (19)/6/18 Guendozi (11/7/18) and Torreria (10/7/18).
Unai Emery signed for the club on the 23/5/2018.
So he wasn’t even around when the club signed two of them and he wasn’t in charge of the buying and selling of players anyway, as he was the coach.
What do you think Gazidis and his three cohorts were doing at the club?
Do you really think that UE had the time, anyway, to assess and negotiate the contracts of the other players mentioned above.
Arteta, on the other hand, once he was made manager, was instrumental in bringing every player in that was signed, as he was also instrumental in releasing every player that left the club.
The “financial backing” UE got was for players that Gazidis and his ilk thought were worth signing and if you see that as being the same as the “financial backing” MA has received, then we obviously have a different opinion on what “financial backing” means.
You are the one who keeps dragging Arteta in to this,
My point is, it cannot be used as an excuse for Emery failing, he didn’t receive financial backing.
Plenty of money were spent on new players and on retaining players.
You are doing Emery no favours by suggesting he was a powerless scapegoat.
Emery would of course never work in a position, where he had no say on which players are signed and retained. He is a world class manager. Would Arsenal and the people he was working with completely disregard his expertise?? Of course they didn’t.
He simply failed at Arsenal. Not because of financial reasons, though.
You are the one saying that UE had the same backing as MA, including money spent on players – what you can’t seem to understand is that he didn’t bring the players you mentioned, it was Gazidis etc.
I’m also not saying that he was a success, he plainly wasn’t, but in hindsight, he was shackled by the internal structure under said Gazidis – MA wasnt after Gazidis left.
Pointing that obvious fact out, doesn’t mean I’m trying to belittle MA, it means I’m trying to be fair and consistent.
Would I want UE back over MA?
Of course not.
Did I want UE gone?
Yes I did.
Was UE given the same backing that MA has been given?
No he wasn’t.
By the way, if you go back to our first debate here, it was you who mentioned UE, but not to worry Anders, we agree to disagree.
I have not in any sentence claimed Emery had the same backing as Arteta. I have claimed Emery had plenty of backing, and that you are wrong, when you claimed the opposite. That is all.
In my opinion, comparing Emery with Arteta is a pointless exercise.
They started in two completely situations and I believe, also with two very different plans.
The irony is, Emery’s failure probably paved some of the way for Arteta to get the backing for a longer term plan, as it took both AW and Emery to fail in getting us quickly back to CL football, before everyone (or nearly everone ;)) accepted a much more comprehensive change was needed.
Many,including Saliba,and the Pundit Rio Ferdinand,have opined that our major undoing in last year’s title race was the Saliba injury. It’s easy for Adams to say this in hindsight,but surely as a defender himself,he must be aware of the massive impact of this particular injury. That said,Mikel could have rotated better. But you also have to factor in the quality or lack thereof of some of the squad players. It was difficult to rest players like Saliba and Saka without a significant drop in quality.
Even as we praise Emery for the fantastic job he has done at Villa,let’s not forget that he has come short too,multiple times. It is easy to see just the good things he has done because of a recency bias. He has done quite well with mid table sides and sides challenging for Champions League places but not really impressive with Arsenal or PSG. Our embarrassing loss in the Europa League final to Chelsea comes to mind. It is also under him that a dominant PSG side with players far superior to the rest of the league failed to win for the first time in four years. PSG would go on to win three times in a row after Emery left. His PSG side also had one of the most embarrassing defeats in recent Champions League history,losing 6-1 to Barcelona after they beat Barcelona 4-0 in Paris in the first leg – isn’t that what the English call bottling? How sure are we that Emery would have won against arguably the best coach in history ,with arguably the best striker in the world,the best playmaker in the world and the best DM in the world ?
I’m not convinced Emery would have beat the eventual treble winners. Let’s not forget it’s Arteta who put us in contention in the first place,when no one was expecting us to finish in the top four,let alone challenge City,at the beginning of last season.
Well said Onyango
I get slightly fed up with reading all the excuses made for an experienced manager in Emery when he came to Arsenal. He couldn’t control the dressing room which might well have been the reason why he didn’t make it count at PSG.
No doubt the role got redefined after his sacking but collapsing before Baku and losing to Chelsea who’d already guaranteed a CL place was awful.
Arteta was lucky to get the support from Kroenke junior and the patience too, but to have Tony Adams put our failure to win last season down to lack of experience at the helm is somewhat silly.
👍🏿
No… the fact that he was an experienced manager didn’t help him as a coach.
He wanted Zaha and got Pepe.
If we are saying he lost the dressing room, as a coach, all he could do was drop the players causing the problems and coach the rest.
I find it odd that our defeat in Baku has been blamed on the likes of Ozil, but now it seems, it was all down to Emery.
I watched the spud / villa game and the changes UE made at half time, were the signs of a manager who, with the right players, knew how to change a game to his advantage.
I was one of those who wanted UE out, but realize know, that he was on a hiding to nothing.
Having said all that, I’m pleased that MA is our manager.
Ken nobody said the loss in Baku was down to Emery-you completely invented that on your own. If you read my posts,you’ll realize I don’t like to use the word blame. I prefer the term responsibility-and in my opinion,the loss in Baku was due to many factors ; the coach ,the players,tactics etc. The gist of my post was to debunk the notion that Emery would have definitely won the league last season.
I didn’t invent anything, read SurP’s second paragraph.
Tony Adams opinion was that he thought UE would have been more suited, as an experienced manager, to handle the situation.
YOU invented the word “definately” regarding Tony’s words..he actually said “could have, perhaps” and didn’t blame Mikel, just thought he lacked the experience to handle the situation.
@Onyango
I see you even reached back to Emerys PSG days to try and make a point. Yeah, he had some of the best players in world football playing for him and still took a drubbing or three. But then again, name the manager who had any real success managing to group of egos who run right shod at PSG. And yet, Emery has managed to win Europa League how many times, with lesser known players and less talented teams. Hmmmmm !
You then tried the weak excuse for our capitulation last season on the injury to Saliba. Wow…
We folded because the guy who was managing the team, didn’t have a full grasp on what his job entailed or how to go about carrying it out. Plain and simple. We had a large chunk of last season playing 1match a week, yet we still buckled. But hey, blame it on every body else but the guy in charge. Jus saying…
I’m afraid your criticism of Onyango’s post is not credible. Emery has come up short when up against the very best with even better players than Arteta had. He has generally done well with mid level teams. For that he deserves credit but not the unreserved adulation which seems to have suddenly arisen because he is doing well at Aston Villa.
Arteta also deserves credit for rebuilding the team and making Arsenal a force once more. To suggest that Arteta did not know what he was doing does not make sense. It is quite clear that Arsenal did not have the squad strength of MC and last season. Also, last season was the first in a long time that we were genuine challengers for the PL. That we ran MC so close would have been unthinkable given the season we had before.
There is really little to suggest that Emery would have done any better in the same circumstances.
@David
Arteta had the squad strength to get us over the line. We were playing 1 match a week for a good chunk of the season. All he had to do was give fringe players a few minutes here and there, just to keep them match fit if and when needed. He failed to do that, and when injuries hit to key players the fringe players could not produce when called on. People need to stop making excuses for this dudes ineptitude…Jus sayin
I disagree.
With our squad depth we had only an outside chance of winning the PL once certain players had to be rotated out or there were significant injuries to key players. This was also one of the youngest teams in the PL up against one of the best teams the PL has ever seen.
Our bench was nowhere near strong enough to be rotating people in and out compared to the likes of MC. Consider for example that one of our back up defenders was Holding who can’t get in at Crystal Palace.
For years MC have been able to place top class and near world class players on the bench. That is a massive advantage.
All well and good David, but we were in a position that no other club in that situation had failed to go on and win.
MA had done a brilliant job to get us into that position, handling injuries etc during that period.. city didn’t suddenly become the force you rightly say they were with six games to go, MA had handled them throughout the season.
What’s wrong in saying that he did a fantastic job, but his inexperience versus Pep, could possibly (Tony’s actual words) have been handled better by UE?
I disagree.
Emery was in charge when we had a poor season ending which left us behind Spurs and depending on the Europa League to get into the CL. We lost that as well under the “experienced” manager.
How can we go from that situation to now be making arguments about him being better placed to get the better of MC with Guardiola’s juggernaut of a team?
You keep going on about squad depth but he kept Trossard, Tierney, Nketiah, Jorghino and Kivior, sat on the bench. All players that are still at the club today and with the exception of Tierney, still in the squad today.
Please compare our squad from last season with Manchester City’s.
Our first eleven was almost as good as City’s, but our squad was much weaker. And during a long season you need a strong squad, or at least a stronger squad than ours. Because of their squad quality they were able to win CL, PL and The FA-cup. In addition do they have the best football manager in the World.
They have set the standard and we must rise our level, to a level we have never been at any time in the history. By the way, I gave not forgot our history as a club.
Didrik, raise ourselves to a level we have never been in our history?
In my opinion, the Invincibles are a squad that city, with all their money, have still not equalled!!
Why is it that our own fans put our history as second best?
Sorry Ken, it’s 20 years since the Invincibles won the league, and the game has developed a lot since 2004.
I doubt our remarkable team would have had a chance against Manchester City of today. Manchester City has won the league several times with much more points than we ever have achieved. I’m not sure it’s possible for a team nowadays to copy the Invincibles, but I’m sure the quality of the game will increase further.
For me it’s meaningless to compare achievements two decades ago with today’s achievements. In other sports you don’t find many World records made 20 years ago, because athletes are getting better. I respect what great athletes have achieved in their time, but it wouldn’t be fair to compare them with athletes of today.
One example: Premier League have had many great strikers and some of them were ours. It took Erling B. Haaland less than 1,5 year to be the fastest player to 50 league goals, and he’s much faster than #2. A great achievement from a young Norwegian player.
https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/08/most-points-in-a-premier-league-season/
I have watched the best football teams from different decades. Started with the fantastic Ajax team from the 70s and finished with Liverpool winning the CL in 2019. The difference in quality, intensity and pace is huge. From my point of view all aspects of the game is better nowadays.
David, why do you make an opinion that differs from yours a cult like thing?
“Unreserved adulation” what nonsense that is.
Not one person has said that UE didn’t make mistakes or that they would prefer him to MA as our manager.
What those of us who dare suggest that Mikel may not have had the experience needed in those last few games are putting forward is the same as Tony Adams :
“Could of perhaps” were his words – not he WOULD have done!!
Neither is anyone saying that UE would / could have achieved what MA had up until those last crucial games – it was incredible.
The question is, would the experience of UE over MA had helped The Arsenal over the line?
No “unreserved adulation” there I would suggest, so why use such evocative and divisive words?
Anyone would think you can’t believe MA ever made a mistake!!
Why do some make denigration of the current manager a cult-like thing?
Emery himself has been in a not dissimilar situation with us, and did not get us “over the line”. So how is it now credible that his name is being put forward as someone who could, would (or whatever word you may wish to insert) have been the one to make us champions?
UE was NOT in the position that MA created – we were the first and, so far, the only team to have squandered such a position in PL history.
I note you do not address my “unresereved adulation” point, or the fact that Tony Adams used the words “could or perhaps”.
I don’t wish to insert any words, I just read what others have written and apply them accordingly to the subject in question.
What UE did or didn’t do in the past is NOT what TA was talking about – he was asking if UE’s experience “could have possibly” been a telling factor in helping The Arsenal over the line rather than MA’s relative IN experience – again, no unreserved adulation for either of them, or are you seeing something different?
Newcastle squandered a 12 point lead over United in or around 1995, thus disproving your incorrect claim KEN!
No Jon, once again your knowledge is proving incorrect.
The position we had was thus :
We had topped the PL table for 248 days – a record for any side that then failed to win said PL.
The “cherry on the cake” , so to speak, was the eight or nine points we also squandered.
THOSE two facts are why our collapse was described as being unique, thus disproving that YOUR claim that I was wrong was incorrect JON.
Manipulation!
Could the record number of days in the lead also have something to do with the season being the longest PL ever because of the break for the World Cup?
For Onayago and NYG
Both of you have good points.
Emery is a great manager but it was the wrong time to bring him in after AW’s reign. I felt it needed a tried and tested steady pair of hands like maybe Benitez who would have concentrated on AW’s blind spot (i.e. defence).
Emery lost my support after the Watford game. Arteta has definitely made mistakes but has not yet lost my support.
As a 2nd manager after a Benitez or an Ancelloti, it would have been interesting to see who would have done better. But we are never going to know.
@NY
But you lot wrote Arteta off long time ago as some sort of Championship level manager. How he was not and would never be the man to make Arsenal a Top 4 team later on Title challengers. But every time he keeps debunking your biases towards him you find something else to pit against him.
He will never be good enough for some of you guys no matter what. I bet if he won the League and Champions league you guys would still find something else to try to not give him the credit he deserves. Always moving the goalpost every time the man prove you wrong on your previous points, you just make up more “But but he only achieved this and that because of help from this and that.. Not because he is a competent individual.”
Lol
“You lot?” What does that mean?
Aren’t we allowed to point out mistakes in MA, but UE, AW etc are open to criticism?
Tony Adams is giving his opinion and suddenly there’s a “you lot”!!
Try to realize there is a difference between coach and manager as well.
@Malaika
You got me mixed up with someone else. I admire Emery since watching how well he did with Sevilla. When AW left, I did want ten Hag to be his replacement, but was not against Emery’s appointment.
The problem being, he wasn’t given enough time or trust to steady the ship and put it on a positive course.
I still see him as a better tactician as well as man manager than Arteta. And had he been given the time trust and backing as Mikel has, I’ve no doubt we would have won the league by now…As always, jus sayin…
It seems you simply can’t get the basic point which is, it was Arteta who put us in that title conversation in the first place when no one gave us any chance. Man City were the best team in Europe last season for crying out loud. Whether Emery could have taken us that far or not is just a speculation. That was unwise from Tony Adams I must say.
Elsamny, can’t he give his opinion as you have just done?
NY, I went to his PSG days because there is always the risk of recency bias. The topic at hand was winning a League title and that is something Emery’s successors and predecessors did with ease at PSG despite the egos you mention-he was the only one to ‘bottle’ it over a seven year period I believe. You have your reason on why we didn’t win the league and it is plain and simple to YOU,not everyone(we perceive things differently if you’re not aware).I respect your opinion even if I disagree with it so let’s just agree to disagree. I hate the word ‘blame’. Instead,I prefer to analyse things and come to conclusions of my own. Personally,I think it’s too simplistic to conclude that just one factor(in your case Arteta) cost us the league. The way I see it,there were several factors that denied us victory. I mentioned Saliba injury as one of them,others being mistakes from players and coach,lack of the depth and the most important probably being that we were up against a formidable team that went on a crazy winning run towards the end. I’m not blaming anyone or anything. I’m merely trying to make sense of why we fell short. Blaming is something people often do when they refuse to think.
You highlight, very wrongly his time at PSG. He won the league and in one season won the donestic treble. The reason he was let go, was because he “failed” in the CL. Somthing EVERY PSG manager has done. At least get your argument right!!!!!
But Emery is not known for winning serious League titles or CL in competitive Leagues. How does one conclude that he would have won a EPL with Arsenal against Treble winners (City)?
Give Arteta PSG and he will win that French league every season. PSG is not a measure of how good a manager is. I bet that each and every manager that PSG has hired since the oil money came has won the French league. That’s like a manager winning the Scottish League with Celtic. Or a manager winning the German league with Bayern etc..
But your judging Pep on winning everything with city?!
Lest we forget, MA has won nothing since becoming manager – unless you count the CS as a trophy.
This isn’t a UE / MA comparison, it’s whether Unai had more experience than Mikel to get us over the line – not a criticism whatsoever, just a justified opinion.
Ken Arteta won an FA cup so it’s a blatant lie when you say he has won nothing since becoming a manager.And even as you ponder the hypothetical scenario of whether Emery would have got us over the line,also ask yourself if he would have got us in that position(of contention) in the first place,the way Arteta did. When you’re analysing a journey,you just can’t skip or ignore 80% of it and jump to the final 20% of “getting over the line” . I come from Kenya,a country of great marathoners . One thing you learn from a marathon is that every stage of the marathon is important. The 5km milestone is just as significant as the 40km milestone. A footballing season is no different from that.
Wrong again Onyango – MA won the fa cup before he became manager and he did it with players he inherited.
I don’t lie (I might make mistakes unintentionally) and to say I do it blatantly needs an apology.
I chose my words carefully, as UE was also the coach, rather than the manager.
We are not discussing whether UE would have got us into the fantastic position that Mike achieved with just a handful of games left… no one is decrying that achievement!!
What’s being discussed is if MA lacked the experience to see the games out and if UE ‘s experience “could possibly” have been the answer – Tony Adams thinks it “could possibly” have helped… simple as that.
I really don’t care about the titles whether manager or coach because I’m not really aware of the job description. All I know is that he was in charge.
But Onyango, you cared enough to say I blatantly lied!!
He was in charge of coaching the squad – nothing more and nothing less., as Reggie so comprehensively described in reply to Sue’s question about coaching.
You really do need to know what the job description entails and what it excludes, when discussing UE’s time at the club versus MA as manager.
I CAN SCARCELY BELIEVE Ken, that YOU of all people, seemingly overlooked the FA CUP, won in Artetas first season.
Some may consider the CS as a trophy, which technically it is, as is involves receiving silverware.
But in NO honest sense, can the CS be regarded as a trophy OR the FA CUP as NOT being one, either.
Jon, I DIDN’T overlook his fantastic achievement when winning the fa cup with such “dross” players as you claim was at his disposal.
The FACT is that he was the COACH at the time and not the MANAGER… just as UE was.
Or am I wrong Jon?
Oh KEN, YOU ARE A POLITICIAN NOW I see, with a typical deceitful politicians answer.
I am disappointed in you if you are really trying to make that bogus, though technically accurate, claim convince ANY true fan.
We all know MA won the cup while he was in charge of our team. Which is what COUNTS!!
Perhaps THAT bogus reasoning is why you to this day maintain AW tendered his resignation, when he was told “RESIGN ARSENE, OR BE SACKED”!
Sorry Jon?
What’s bogus?
The FACT is that MA has not one anything while MANAGER of the club – he did win the fa cup while COACH of the club and what a win it was, with all those “dross” players (your word not mine).
Your always going on about being FACTUAL in your put downs on others, so what’s your problem here?
Of course I remembered the win – but I also remembered the situation… nothing political at all, just knowledge about our club and how others forget them, when trying to make a point.
I’ve done it myself, like forgetting that Jack Kelsey ‘s shop was at the Clock End and not the North Bank – don’t get so defensive about being proved wrong!!
It happens to us oldies 👨🦯👨🦯👨🦯
Sorry domestic quadruple not treble.
He won once,but lost in another,to an inexperienced Monaco side.The gist of my post was to highlight the fact that Emery has bottled before. It is correct when you say EVERY PSG has failed in CL,but not in the way Emery did. None of those managers ever bottled a 4-0 advantage going into the second leg. That is arguably the biggest bottle job in CL history- embarrassing if you ask me.
Alright now we know both Emery and Arteta had their fair share of bottling. Don’t think it was necessary to put down Emery to bring Arteta up over a casual opinion from Tony Adams. It shouldn’t be about justifying who is better by showing who went lower
@Reggie
RealTalk.Thank you 👍🏾
It’s not a strong hypothetical argument You have to imagine that Emery would have the same set of players thanks to Edu and you have to imagine that Emery had put us in the same situation with about eight games to go. I don’t really see the point Adams probably should have just said with a bit more experience Arteta could have done better
None of these types of arguments hold water. If we are to take any of the great teams (other than MC) that have won the PL and put them up against this MC they would have a fight on their hands. How many of those teams are likely to have been able to place ahead of last season’s MC in the PL?
The invincibles total tally was 90 which is just 1 point more than what MC had last season.
Even though it is difficult to compare directly it gives some insights into the kind of sustained performances required to topple MC.
That some fans and pundits have kept talking about “bottling”, lack of experience, or some other manager etc. raises questions about the balance in the criticisms levelled at Arteta and his young team.
From what one can see some people quickly wrote him off and have held on to those negative perspectives.
You nailed it 😉
He frequently does Anders
Exactly.
It’s like saying “If my Uncle was a female he would be my Auntie”. Lol
While Tony A demonstrated exceptional skills as a player, his coaching abilities fell short of expectations. Emery, now thriving at Villa, couldn’t position us for a title challenge, possibly due to the immense scale of our club and the timing not being in his favor. In contrast, Arteta with his vast premiership knowledge appears better equipped to lead us to a potential Premiership victory. Personally, I was over the moon when Emery left the Club.
Can I please ask this sincere and simple question and I hope to get a fair answer?
I understand the difference between the coach who is on the training ground and the manager who maybe overseeing it all
Who oversaw everything under Emery? Was someone telling him how he wanted the coaching to be done because the football was tepid a lot of the time? Did someone else manage the dressing room?
I find it surprising that the former Sevilla and PSG coach/manager with multiple titles would come to Arsenal and not have a fair amount of control. If he did, then he sold himself short
Sue after Wenger, we went all continental. We had a director of football and a coach. Salheni was the director of football and we also had a technical director, cant remember his name, who got in players. Emery was there to coach the players he was given. A lot of continental team do this, we tried it and it failed badly. I think the Kronkies thought Wenger had far too much power and wanted to change it.
Sven Mislintat was the football director. He bought in all the players. I couldn’t remember his name. Arteta is working under far different conditions than Emery. And for the better.
Strangely enough Reggie, Mikel now has even more power than Arsene did… funny old game!!
Perhaps not so strange after all, KSE UK INC. got full control of Arsenal in August 2018. Arsène Wenger left before the transaction was done.
But it was Gazidis and kronkie who said that no one person would ever hold that much control again – here we are today and MA does.
I guess they have said a lot, but what they say isn’t necessarily what they are planning. In addition, they tried Raúl Sanllehí as Head of Football, perhaps that was enough.
Fair point. But this time it is working just as it did in Wengers early days….
Yes, and I’m happy with Arteta and Edu, it could have been much worse 🤠
To be fair, I believe Emery oversaw training, team selection and the dressing room, but was afforded insufficient control on a couple of key areas as a coach:
1) Emery did not have the support from club management to terminate multimillion contracts of unwanted players on high wages. While Arteta had the power to get rid of stars like Ozil and Auba by spending millions to pay them off and rip up their contracts, Emery unfortunately had to skirt around such issues and keep underperforming stars in his squad till there were interested buyers. When star players knew that there was only so much Emery could do to deal with them, it was harder for him to exert control over the dressing room and instil much needed discipline.
2) When it came to transfers, Emery could only identify positions that needed strengthening and recommend players he wanted, but it was up to Mislintat and Sanllehi to decide who to sign. An example was when Emery wanted a winger and was keen on EPL proven Zaha, but got Ligue 1 superstar Pepe.
Was the tepid football down to Emery’s coaching incompetence or his inability to get players he really wanted? I leave you to decide on that, but please note that the tepid football continued for another 2 seasons after Emery left. It was only last season that we saw marked improvements.
Overall, I think Emery sold himself short and took on a task that he was always much more likely to fail than succeed, given the authority he had at the club. Fortunately, his sacking seemed to make the owner realised that the next manager should be given more time, money and control to turn things around
What does his skills as a player or manager have to do with it?
Like you have just done, he’s giving his opinion.
Emery didn’t have the power, the backing, or the money that Arteta has been given, that’s why he couldn’t position the club to challenge for the PL.
MA has admitted himself that he was learning on the job (it takes a real man to do that by the way) and he had never experienced what went on at the tail end of last season.
David, it has NOTHING to do with preconceived thoughts about Mikel Arteta, it has EVERYTHING to do with logical reasoning – was UE a more experienced manager than MA, ignoring the fact that he wasn’t even our manager of course?
It has to do with the truth and facts Ken. Something a few people dont seem to grasp.
I truly believe that some fans want to have the equivalent of AKB and WOB division Reggie.
Critique abd be damned!!
It’s just a difference of opinion. If you offer critique in a public forum,surely someone else can respond to the critique,to disagree or agree with it. It’s really not strictly a matter of truth and facts as Reggie puts it. It’s mostly a matter of opinions and opinions are bound to be varied in a diverse,global group like the Arsenal support base. As long as no one is being hateful or disrespectful,I see nothing wrong with it. We can agree to disagree.
Does “blatantly lying” come under the umbrella of being disrespectful Onyango?
When I said blatant lying, it was a misunderstanding of what you meant-I didn’t really intend to cast aspersions. When you said Arteta never won the FA cup as a manager,I saw that as a lie because I didn’t consider the nitty-gritty of coach/manager- ignorance from my part.But from your point of view,you meant something different due to the technicality of manager/coach.Quite frankly,I don’t know the difference in job description between the two as it is not something that interests me-I care mostly about the footballing aspect if I’m being honest. If you were offended by that,I apologize.
Thanks Onyango.
Just for the record and for what it’s worth, I ALWAYS read your posts with great interest and find your opinions worth digesting and thinking about.
You certainly know your football, even if we don’t always agree… which means I probably don’t know too much myself 😂😂
No more than being blatantly disingenuous in stating MA was only “coach” at that time, I suggest KEN!
Oh! Was he the manager then Jon?
As someone who is always correcting others, I didn’t think YOU would mind being CORRECTED.
sorry if I hit a NERVE, but the factual history of our club needs to be addressed at all times, wouldn’t you agree?
Surely you also agree that the English language should be used correctly and “coach” doesn’t mean “manager” does it?
Just checked my English A level notes and I’m correct.
I’m sure your oft talked about first class degree will back me up as well 👨🎓
No KEN MY FIRST CLASS DEGREE AND THE KNOWLEDGE THAT WENT INTO ATTAINING IT DOES NOT BACK YOU UP AT ALL.
The fact is that you claiming he was coach and not manager ,though technically accurate, which we all agree, still deliberately avoided the fact MA WAS in charge of the team that woin the Cup that season and that THEREFORE, he deserved credit for doing so.
And not for being unmentioned in your ORIGINAL post that caused, as no doubt you intended , all this heated debate.
I gave him credit Jon, both for winning the fa cup and the CS anf and I believe he is THE most successful coach we have ever had.
So, in the future Jon, if someone uses a word that is “technically accurate” you will not give them a lecture on the use of correct English, is THAT correct? Just as long as we get the drift of what is being said on this football site is sufficient from now on… good.
I was very surprised that You, of all people, should be complaining about being correct in both the history of the club and MA’s titles and results.
Would you believe that I also worked hard for my results, but decided to work in the big wide world after leaving grammar school and this resulted in me now having numerous properties and private pensions that my family enjoy with me.
Of course, I don’t believe anyone else cares about what I have done, so I don’t talk about it – but just so you know, one doesn’t need degrees to be successful.
I won’t mention it again, how about you doing the same?
UE was much more experienced than Arteta when he took us to 5th when we had a good chance of making the CL. We picked up only 4 points in our last 5 league matches. We also went on to lose the Europa league final poorly in the same year.
So how is it now “logical” that he could have been better placed than Arteta?
Whilst we did well for most of last season we had no more than an 8 point lead over MC (who had a game in hand). There are a number of great managers with lots of experience whose teams have been reeled in from greater deficits.
There is nothing logical about hypothesizing whether one manager could do better than another manager based on their track records at different points in time with different players and resources.
It’s just a hypothetical opinion from an ex-player, yet the extent it triggered some fans here into trying to substantiate comparisons between apples and oranges is beyond comprehension
It’s certainly hit a nerve top4
Thanks top4 for replying to my earlier question – and Reggie too.
My view on why Tony Adams’ remarks have triggered such a debate is the suggestion that HE made that Emery could possibly have got us the title due to his experience
He chose to use Emery, as our former coach, which in my opinion was a rather silly comparison to make. Emery was a failure at Arsenal.
Now if Tone had used Klopp as an example to highlight how experience may have helped then the article would most likely have garnered about 10 comments and we wouldn’t be discussing the merits – or otherwise- of both Arteta and Emery
No, I disagree.
Still missing Tony’s point David. He was asking if we could possibly have been better placed in the run in if UE was there to help with his experience and, in his opinion, we could possibly have been.
He was not belittling MA in any way, just a simple question / idea that might have explained why after 240 odd days at the summit of the PL, we came second – the first team ever to have lost with only a few games left and a 9 point advantage.
Worth discussing don’t you think, especially as other ideas such as injuries, fatigue, substitutions, var and bad refereeing have all been put forward as differing possibilities, including city’s dominance the previous two years.
I’m just proud that we finished 2nd, saw great entertaining football, ran the mighty city so close and didn’t lose to one London club the whole season.
Plus, of course, we have already beaten the mighty city twice, once at Wembley and at The Emirates – the futures rosy red and here’s hoping MA becomes the most successful manager in our history – he’s already our most successful coach I do believe.
I disagree. What point am I missing?
What Mr Adam’s clearly said was that if “Emery had been manager we might have even won the league”.
This is the point I was addressing. There is nothing in Emery’s history to suggest he would be a better fit for the circumstances.
In my view Mr Adam’s comment is unnecessary and undermining.
I disagree.
Read the article again and w hat your, seemingly, missing is the word “might”.
He was expressing his opinion, just as you are when you say Mr Adams comment is unnecessary and undermining.
He was referring to the amount of time that Unai had been a manager, compared to Mikel.
There was no undermining of what MA had achieved, in fact quite the opposite:
Quote “I love his passion and his enthusiasm. I’ve always said he’s a little bit inexperienced and PERHAPS needs to draw on someone in his staff who is a LITTLE more experienced.
I’m talking about going across the line last season.”
So how is that undermining him THIS season?
Who does he have within his staff who has MORE managerial experience than MA himself?
Having said that, Tony suggested that last season, Unai might have been able to capitalise on the excellent work done by Mikel and help him to get over the line… because Mikel didn’t actually GET over the line.
Nothing to suggest ANY kind of undermining, just a justified opinion… unless one is of the opinion that MA didn’t do anything wrong and said person is a little touchy when it comes to stating the obvious regarding our collapse at the latter end of the season?
We’ll have to agree to disagree.
My view stands.
My pleasure Sue. Tony tends to shoot his mouth off sometimes. Words are not his strongest suit, though it did stir up some good debates and entertaining comments
Ah, dear old Tony Adams bless him!
Heart of a lion, morals of a Methodist ever since becoming permanently sober, and sadly, brain of a pea!
Totally useless speculations with no answer. What we know is that Emery got his chance with us, failed and got sacked. We also know that MC has won the league three times in a row, and they won the treble last season. In addition, do we know that MC won the league in 2018 with 100 points, which is all time high.
We also know that Tony Adams wasn’t talking about the success of city Didrik, something that you seem obsessed with.
Dear old Tony was expressing an opinion and, from the reaction, his opinion has created some great debating.
I wonder if he thought it “could probably” do that, as I know he wouldn’t say “would have”.
It’s like the game that was played at school, where one whispers something into the person next to him or her and see how it gets twisted at the end of , say, over a hundred whispered comments.
Thoroughly enjoyed the debate myself and I’ve learnt a lot about manchester city, the role of coaches and managers, that’s for sure.
👍👍👍
Sorry mate, but for me this is speculations and hindsight with no value whatsoever. I shouldn’t have responded to this useless article, and have to say sorry again. 😉
I’m very optimistic about our future, but it’s a huge task to win the league when we have opponents like MC. They have lots of layers to protect them 😂
Yes Didrik, I believe there are 115 layers being peeled back – meanwhile the club I support has no layers whatsoever to peel back, thanks to playing by the rules 😂
To the point, in my little world Arsenal is the moral winner almost every season 😉