Arsenal vs Villarreal: The 7 worst results under Unai Emery

Unai Emery. Two words that would trigger a shudder down the spine around 18 months ago are now two words that can’t be erased from the mind. Naturally, as Arsenal build up to their Europa League semi-final clash with Villarreal, the Spaniard is a major talking point.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence

It was nightmarish. Truly awful. What started out so brightly (after those first two results) with a 22-game unbeaten run in all competitions gradually began to fester into an infected wound that could only be remedied by a knife digging deep and carving it out.

A gruesome image, granted, but one that reflects the mood in and around the Emirates Stadium at the time.

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Arsenal: The 7 worst results under Unai Emery ahead of reunion in Europa League semi-finals

Unequivocally bottling a top four finish in 2018/19 and then subsequently embarrassing themselves in the Europa League final, any positive aspects were banished to the history books. A substantial rejig of the squad sought to renew optimism, but that batch of signings proved wholly underwhelming and the performances finally started earning the results they merited.

Lasting until November 2020, the club called time long after the supporters had as Emery was sacked after seven matches without a victory in all competitions.

Along came Mikel Arteta, whose current plight is hardly awe-inspiring, but has the backing of the club to transform the outlook of the side, one that will be immeasurably aided by winning the Europa League.

Ah, that’s where Emery comes in.

This sport, eh? What stands between Arsenal and another European final is the man who took them to their last. Defeat in Spain will place highly among Arteta’s worst results in the job, but would it top some of Emery’s? He had a fair few, after all.

In preparation for this reunion, here are the worst of the worst under the former Arsenal boss.

Liverpool 5-1 Arsenal – December 2018

Oh the hammerings away at ‘big six’ rivals.

If you were building an ‘Arsenal fan starter pack’, it’d include a disclaimer warning fans to never, ever get their hopes up when facing Liverpool, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea or even Tottenham on the road. Arsenal don’t do good results in those. Not for a while.

As far as hammerings, though? This was the first of the Emery reign shortly after the 22-match unbeaten run came to an end, and it was a bad one.

Shkodran Mustafi was on top form, Stephan Lichtsteiner looked like he was already retired and Granit Xhaka was…yeah, you know the rest. 99% of the defending that day was atrocious.

Even more remarkable was that Arsenal actually went in front, through Ainsley Maitland-Niles of all people.