Unai Emery is a serial trophy winner, but his time at Arsenal ended in failure and he was sacked midway through his second season.
But now the Spaniard is back in the Premier League with Aston Villa and is out to dent the Gunners’ title charge live on talkSPORT this weekend.
The Villans welcome the Gunners to Villa Park on Saturday lunchtime and Emery will be eyeing three points against his former employers.
As a multiple Europa League winner, his time at the Emirates goes down as a stain on his managerial record, but where did it go wrong?
Why did Arsenal sack Unai Emery?
Emery arrived in the summer of 2018 as Arsene Wenger’s successor and things got off to a great start after initial defeats to Manchester City and Chelsea.
Once those games were out of the way, Arsenal embarked on a 22-match unbeaten run in all competitions.
This saw them rocket up the Premier League, top their Europa League group and reach the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup.
They did go on to lose to Tottenham in the cup, but overall, things were progressing well.
Emery, a master in the Europa League with three previous title wins, guided the north Londoners to the 2019 final while a top-four finish was in their grasp.
However, a 3-2 defeat against Crystal Palace and a 1-1 draw with Brighton cost the Gunners four points, which ensured they finished fifth and missed out on a Champions League spot that season.
That put a huge amount of pressure on the Europa League final against Chelsea and Eden Hazard inspired the Blues to a 4-1 win over their London rivals.
However, Emery believes the first major problem was Aaron Ramsey’s injury in April that ruled him out for the rest of the campaign.
Speaking to The Guardian in 2020, Emery said: “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 percent commitment from every player.”
Ramsey had already signed a pre-contract agreement with Juventus, so he departed the club at the end of the season.
In the summer, Arsenal backed their boss and splashed out a club-record transfer fee on Nicolas Pepe.
However, Emery wanted Wilfried Zaha, saying: “We signed Pepe. He’s a good player but we didn’t know his character and he needs time, patience.
“I favoured someone who knew the league and wouldn’t need to adapt. Zaha won games on his own, Tottenham, Manchester City, us. Incredible performances.
“I told them: ‘This is the player I know and want.’ I met Zaha and he wanted to come.
“The club decided Pepe was one for the future. I said: ‘Yes, but we need to win now and this lad wins games.’ He beat us on his own.”
You have to say that Emery has been proven right about Pepe, as the player is now on loan at Nice.
Then there was the Mesut Ozil situation that ended badly and left Emery with an unhappy player in the dressing room.
Ozil, like Ramsey, was one of Emery’s five captains but wasn’t at his best during the 2018/19 campaign.
Despite this, after Laurent Koscielny’s departure, Ozil was asked to become Arsenal’s captain, but the players blocked the move.
Ozil was then frozen out and played just once of the opening ten league games during the 2019/20 season.
And the man selected to be Koscielny’s replacement as captain, Granit Xhaka, caused problems as well.
Xhaka was another who was part of the original leadership group, but in a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace, he angered the Arsenal faithful.
With the Gunners struggling, the Swiss international was substituted to great cheers from the home crowd, and as he trudged off, he incited the crowd with hand gestures and told them to ‘f*** off’.
Emery had no choice but to strip him of the captaincy and instate Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as his replacement.
This point marked the beginning of the end for Emery as rumours emerged from the dressing room claiming the players openly mocked the Spaniard while his communication was criticised.
English wasn’t his first language but he insisted on speaking to all of his players in English, which caused problems.
But, as with any manager, the ultimate reason he lost his job was down to results.
The Gunners failed to win in Emery’s last seven matches and a 2-1 defeat at the Emirates to Eintracht Frankfurt proved to be the end.
But Emery is back and ‘better prepared‘ for life in the Premier League and you can only imagine just how sweet a win over his former employers would be.
