Arsenal: Unai Emery is the perfect man for this club’s imperfections

Arsenal have their issues that have carried over from Arsene Wenger, but there is no man better equipped to fix them than Unai Emery.

Most fans understand that Unai Emery is the perfect man for this job. He brings all the things that Arsene Wenger didn’t and Arsenal are going to benefit long-term. But this goes beyond being animated on the sidelines, or not being driven by emotional decisions.

For as much as we all love Arsene Wenger, there were certain imperfections that became inherent during his reign at the club. For instance, a sense of complacency and an inability to perform away from home, just to name two.

While Emery has done a fantastic job turning some of these imperfections on their heads, some are going to be a long-term battle. Namely that sense of complacency. That “woe is me” feeling that comes from getting beaten up, rather than fighting back. This was an epidemic of the Wenger era and we’re still seeing it under Emery.

That doesn’t mean that Emery is failing. It simply means that it’s not an easy fix. But even in his actions, now, you can see that the battle is still being fought.

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For instance, I feel like Wenger’s approach to this was, “in time, it will sort itself out. Just stick to the plan.” Whereas Emery’s approach feels more like, “okay, that didn’t work, what else can I do?” He’s been so quick to make changes, to try new things, to shake up the established names, and nowhere is that seen better than in his treatment of Mesut Ozil.

In the end, what this may come down to is the team’s ability to bring in the right kind of players to make this battle an easier one for Emery. And maybe the festering “woe is me” mindset is too deeply entrenched in some of these players, but all I know is that Emery is taking a much more aggressive approach to stomping it out than Wenger ever did. Trust is not always the answer when a particular player hasn’t earned that trust.

That said, I trust Emery to get the job done because he’s not the kind of guy that is going to settle for anything less. We’ve already seen that in his operations this season. All we need now is to give him time to keep fighting this battle, as well as the reinforcements needed to make the battle winnable.