Arsenal: Unai Emery must show one key ability to survive this year

Arsenal fans are clamoring for Unai Emery’s head, and he can’t be far from losing it, but there is one key trait he can show to save himself yet.

Unai Emery was not given an easy task. Even the most vehement Arsenal fan has to admit that. Coming in after the greatest manager in club history is no small feat, especially seeing as how Wenger did fall behind the ball a bit in his latter years, with a parting gift of tying Mesut Ozil down to that astronomical wage package.

That said, it wasn’t the worst situation either. He had a ton of resources, he had the faith of the club, he had a lot of talented players with which to get the club back into the Champions League. And that was his goal, through and through. Nothing more. Just get back to the Champions League.

It’s been… meh. Emery is clearly a man of many talents, but there is one ability that we have to see if he is going to survive this year, and that is the ability to learn.

Emery’s open-mindedness is what made him so appealing. He experimented with so many different set-ups in an effort to find the right one that the contrast between him and Wenger was apparent.

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But maybe that was more mad scientist than philosopher. Maybe he was just throwing stuff at the wall to see what stuck, but not really paying attention to what stuck anyway.

Whatever the case, this year things don’t look to have improved at all, and it’s high time for Emery to show us that he has the capability to learn from his own mistakes. I still don’t understand how, after a two week international break, he still deployed the same defense that continues to fail us. There is literally no logical reason why that should happen. None.

So learn. Improve. Try something new, but actually pay attention to the results. There’s still time for Emery to prove himself. One year and some change is not the best sample size, but in that timeframe you really have to start showing signs of progress, not just with the team but as a manager.

I’m not on the #EmeryOut train yet. This Sheffield United loss was a massive punch to the kidneys, but let’s see how he recovers from it. That said, if he sends Sokratis and David Luiz out there next time I will immediately announce my candidacy for president of the #EmeryOut party.