Arsenal: Unai Emery has re-energised everything

Unai Emery is changing Arsenal football club. And more than anything else that he has done, he has re-energised everything and enthused the London Colney corridors with passion and unity. There is a different feel and culture, and that is critical.

Arsenal are a very different club from what they were just a matter of months ago. As soon as Arsene Wenger walked out of the door, that was always going to be the case. But few could have expected the extent of the change, from the players on the pitch to the management structures behind the scenes.

Catch the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal podcast right here

The man leading the change, predominantly, has been Unai Emery, the Spaniard tasked with succeeding Wenger and re-shaping an organisation that had almost exclusively been moulded by one man’s vision. No easy task.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

And there have been plenty of changes at the club in the short six months that Emery has been at the helm for. The style on the pitch is braver and more structured. Different players are being utilised and championed. There is a greater onus on fitness and physicality in training, as proven by the improved running statistics and second-half success. But of all the changes that Emery has made, some of them extremely technical ones, the most significant evolution comes in a rather ambiguous, non-specific manner.

Emery has changed the very feeling of the club. There is no statistic for it, no analytical conclusions to be drawn, no in-depth insights that can be made. Arsenal just feels like a different organisation, with an evolved, positive culture that has unified a splintered and disjointed fan base from the latter Wenger era.

The very chants of ‘We’ve got our Arsenal back’ tell you everything you need to know. The fans now feel connected to the club again. There is a sense of excitement for the future, a sense of hope and anticipation that was not previously present. Under Wenger, it felt almost like survival, just trying to endure the relentless disappointments to experience the brief glimpses of glory that peeked out from the shadows every now and then.

Perhaps it is because Arsenal are currently enjoying a 16-game unbeaten run in all competitions that extends all the way back into August. Perhaps it is because it is easy to be positive when the performances are encouraging and the results are excellent. But there is a greater promise around the club, and it all stems from Emery.

The very way in which he carries himself on the touchline. His enthusiasm for the match that he is watching. His fist pumps for every tackle. His geeing up the crowd. His impassioned, obsessive, incessant presence inside — and outside — the technical area. His mannerisms are infectious and they are changing the very fabric of the club.

Unai Emery has re-energised everything. And that is more important than anything else that he could have done.