Arsenal: Unai Emery defence falls on death ears

Unai Emery has launched a staunch defence of his management at Arsenal thus far. But his comments are a little curious and largely fall on deaf ears.

The pressure is mounting. You do not need to look far to see a growing number of Arsenal fans beginning to heavily scrutinise and question Unai Emery and his role as the head coach of the club. And it is clearly beginning to effect Emery.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — The Unai Emery One

In his pre-match press conference ahead of Thursday night’s match against Vitoria SC, Emery was bombarded with questions from the media regarding his management style, the efficacy of the job he has done and the progress that he is — or is not — making in the post-Arsene Wenger era. He responded in a pugnacious fashion, at one point providing a near five-minute answer to one question.

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The primary line of questioning focused on the improvements he has made post-Wenger. Without copying all of his quotes into this piece, the following paragraph nicely summarises his argument:

"“When I arrived here, the creativity is more or less good, but being competitive was worse. It was not enough. I think last year I started to improve being competitive, also more or less creativity with some very good matches playing with that creativity.”"

James Benge reports that Emery used the word ‘competitive’ nine times in the space of just 15 minutes. His argument is quite clear: Arsenal needed to be more ‘competitive’ than the ‘creative’ version they were under Wenger, and that is what he has instilled the team.

That much is true. Arsenal are more ‘competitive’ than they were under Wenger. There is a greater fighting spirit within the team, they are more resolute, and are now seemingly willing to scrap out victories, rather than relying on the matches where their free-flowing football simply blows opposing teams away.

But I would challenge the statement that the team needed to be more competitive even when sacrificing creativity. In reality, the club was looking for a long-term process, one that was installed by the head coach and shows improvement over the next decade. Results were not the problem. It was the process that needed fixing, and this is what Emery has neglected.

Emery then did something quite odd: he used the young players as an excuse:

"“We are in the process. And why we are in the process: because we changed players and because we are taking young players and giving them chances.”"

One of the brilliant aspects of Emery’s management has been his willingness to trust young players in major matches. But to use this as an excuse for poor performances seems a little odd. No one asked about the young players in the press conference. This was an unprompted ‘reason’ for his questionable management.

The point might be a genuine and applicable one: Emery’s use of young players does require patience. But that does not excuse his poor management of other players in the team, his continued selection of underperforming ‘stars’, and the lack intensity, impetus and ingenuity that Arsenal have played with.

All in all, then, Emery’s defence of his management falls on deaf ears. Either it misses the whole point of his appointment or uses an unprompted and uneccesary excuse. Emery is under pressure. And it is beginning to show.