Arsenal: The damning Unai Emery quote from his first day in charge

Unai Emery spoke of two things when he arrived at Arsenal: protagonists and pressing. Just a year later, this quote is now coming back to bite.

When Arsenal moved on from Arsene Wenger, they were searching for one thing: revitalisation. That impacts every aspect of the club, and does so differently, but provides an overarching aim for the new era: to bring change, new life, and injection of purpose and direction.

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Unai Emery was the man tasked with providing this on the football pitch — others were introduced to steer the off-pitch dealings, from the commercial part of the club to the work in the transfer market. His target was simple: to implement a clear, defined and successful style of play that fans and players could recognise and support.

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On his very first day in the job, Emery was asked about what his tactical approach would be. This was his response:

"“My idea is to be protagonists. The history here is a team that love playing with possession and I like that personality. When you don’t have possession, I want a squad that are very, very intensive with the pressing. The two things are important for me to be protagonists – possession of the ball and pressing when you don’t have the ball.”"

Therefore, you can boil his playing philosophy down to two key tenets, one relating to how the team plays with the ball and the other to how the team plays without the ball:

• Playing as protagonists
• Pressing high

At the time, that all sounded well and good, and I was extremely excited to see this new-found plan in action. It was what the latter Wenger years lacked, was the primary gripe of many supporters who had called for change, and seemed to suit both the trajectory of the modern game and the current players in the squad, although the personnel would change drastically within the first year. However, since that time, if I was to ask you for three examples of when the Emery iteration of Arsenal played as ‘protagonists’ and ‘intensive <…> pressing’, would you be able to provide any?

You see, Emery may have professed his desire to be an offensive team that controls matches with extended periods of possession and suffocating pressure, but from what is produced on the pitch, it is very difficult to argue that that is the result of his efforts. He could be trying, of course. It could be the players who are failing to execute — or understand, as has been whispered — his gameplan. But he also might have just been lying in the first place.

This all came to a head in Monday night’s 1-1 draw with Manchester United. Against a lacklustre opponent who were playing unfit players and missing key starters at several positions, Emery cowered. He played an industrious midfield, a deep defensive line and used a counter-attack strategy in possession. There was not even a hint of his key tenets: being protagonists and pressing.

This is a damning indictment of his management. The fact that he either cannot implement the strategy that he wants to or is now trying to implement a strategy that is different from the one he said he wants to is extremely concerning indeed. One of those two statements must be true, and neither is especially complimentary of Emery and his coaching.

Has the time come for Emery to be sacked? No, of course not. It is far too early for such rash decisions. But he is presently being hung by the very rope that he handed himself with his very first words on the job, and if change does not come, the chair will soon be kicked away.