Arsenal: Unai Emery saying all the right things

Unai Emery was asked about Arsenal’s recent good run of form that has seen them rise to fourth in the Premier League. His response was perfect. Here’s why he is saying all the right things.

It’s been a hugely productive period for Arsenal. Six straight wins in the Premier League, nine in all competitions, after two defeats to open the season, the Gunners have worked their way up to fourth in the table, just two points behind the trio of league leaders, and earned six points in their Europa League group, all but securing qualification into the knockout stages with relative ease.

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But while the results have been extremely positive, the performances have belied the success of the recent weeks. Arsenal haven’t actually played that well. They’ve just happened to continually win, which is a skill that should be recognised but cannot be relied upon throughout a whole season.

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Emery was asked about the recent success that his side has enjoyed, as well as the growing hope within the fan base that this team is ready to challenge for the top four and potentially more at the sharp end of the Premier League. This was his response:

"“I am not agreeing totally with the response of the supporters. I think we need to improve a lot. I think we have to continue doing a lot of the things to get better. Our demands need to be very high. The supporters can enjoy it with us but also we’re speaking with our reality every day. We need to improve because, for example, the match against Fulham was a very good result and a very good game for 90 minutes, but in the first 45 minutes, I thought we needed to do better.”"

I am really beginning to like Emery. The way he carries himself, the topics that he chooses to discuss in press conferences and interviews, the respectful work he does with the fans, the players, the coaches and everyone vaguely involved with the club. And these comments were precisely what I wanted to read from him.

Yes, Arsenal have been winning games. And yes, they have worked well to climb the table and progress in domestic and European cups. But the performances have not been particularly impressive alongside them, and, over an extended period, the performance, or the process, will yield results of a similar standing — good performances yield good results; bad performances yield bad results.

The fact that Emery has the humility and the awareness to recognise this is wonderful. It would have been easy for him to shout from the rooftops about how brilliant his team are doing, especially given the added scrutiny that he is under in succeeding Arsene Wenger. But he didn’t. He chose to focus on what needs to improve. He chose to highlight some of the underlying problems, not the crack-covering wins. He chose to talk about the process, not the result.

Unai Emery is saying all the right things. And, quite frankly, I am very quickly falling in love with his management.