Arsenal: Picking favorites not a good look for Unai Emery

Unai Emery has a very distinct personality at Arsenal, and deviating from it now is never going to be a good look for him. There’s no room for favorites.

When Unai Emery took over as the Arsenal manager following Arsene Wenger’s departure, fans immediately started looking for the differences. Early observations indicated that he had a lot of the strengths that Arsene Wenger lacked.

He made tough decisions, he handled each game in isolation, he was energetic and emotional on the sidelines, he valued high-octane play over the beautiful control.

But most importantly, and my favorite thing about him, he did not pick favorites. He showed that right away with Mesut Ozil, but he showed it in his usage of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette too.

He’s an empirical thinker. He doesn’t make decisions based on emotion. He won’t start his friend over the better player.

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Which is why it’s hard when you start to wonder if maybe that was just because he hadn’t figured out who his favorites were yet. Because nowadays, it’s looking like Emery may in fact have some favorites. And some of them aren’t popular ones—David Luiz, Granit Xhaka, Matteo Guendouzi, potentially Nicolas Pepe.

It’s the former two that are obviously the least popular. Luiz shouldn’t have even gotten the starting job over a superior performing Calum Chambers, but now that he’s gotten it, he hasn’t even been challenged for his place because Emery isn’t in any hurry to do so.

I love Granit Xhaka and what he brings to the club, but it’s so clear that the midfield isn’t working. I know that this midfield can work with Xhaka, but Emery still has to figure out a way to make that work other than just plugging him into the same spot over and over again.

Obviously not all favorites are bad. Guendouzi has been a favorite since he arrived and it’s paying off, because Guendouzi is an incredible talent.

But Emery can’t lose track of what set him apart. He’s still holding a hard line with some players, but with others, he seems to be softening. If you don’t challenge these favorites, they’ll end up just like Wenger had them. Different names, same problems.

As I keep saying, it’s early. So I don’t want to blow this too far out of proportion, but one of Emery’s big strengths was his practical decision-making and I’d hate to see that skew from the plot now.