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.

Arsenal 2-3 Crystal Palace – April 2019

Top four was there for the taking.

A victory against a weak Crystal Palace side would have put Arsenal three points clear of Chelsea in fifth and five clear of Manchester United in sixth. They well and truly bottled it.

Emery opted to field a back five made up of Carl Jenkinson, Mustafi, Laurent Koscielny, Konstantinos Mavropanos and Sead Kolasinac, with two holding midfielders in Lucas Torreira and Mohamed Elneny.

Precisely the setup needed. Not.

Mustafi’s shambolic attempt at defending was the German at the peak of his powers as Palace moved two goals in front, and despite Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reducing the scoreline with 13 minutes to go, it was too little too late.

More woeful results followed against Leicester, Wolves and then Brighton, which ended hopes of a top four finish for good.

Chelsea 4-1 Arsenal – May 2019

A horrible, horrible day.

Some impressive results en route to the final including scalps over Napoli and Valencia were undone in embarrassing fashion as Chelsea stormed to a 4-1 win over Arsenal in the Europa League final.

All those poor supporters who spent thousands of pounds and days of travel to reach Baku were treated to an atrocious display.

Three quick-fire goals in the second half formed the beginning of a total capitulation, and while Alex Iwobi scored a screamer on his final game for the club, that glimmer of hope lasted just three minutes as the Blues hammered the final nail in the coffin.

Olivier Giroud thanking Arsenal post-match didn’t help matters.

Watford 2-2 Arsenal – September 2019

31.

THIRTY ONE.

The number of shots Arsenal allowed on their goal against the Hornets spelled the beginning of the end.

Going two goals up, the Gunners were at sixes and sevens across the pitch, letting Watford carve through them like a hot knife through already warm butter, laying bare all the balance issues that Emery never failed to fix.

On top of that their was a hilariously rubbish attempt to play out from the back that resulted in a gift for the home side, the like that William Saliba watching on from the stands probably had a chuckle at.

If there was any hope that the summer signings were going to revitalise Emery and his squad, they were put to bed that afternoon.

Arsenal 2-2 Crystal Palace – October 2019

An infamous night in the history of Arsenal Football Club, where supporters jeered the substitution of Granit Xhaka and were subsequently told to f*ck off.

Another lead was let slip as Sokratis and Luiz’s early goals counted for nothing, but the cherry on the cake was Xhaka’s substitution.

It had been building prior to events that night – with the away fans doing likewise in ironically cheering the substitution in the defeat to Sheffield United just one game prior – before it all blew up.

Appearing to spell the end for the Swiss international, Emery took over a week to announce he’d been stripped of the captaincy, sparking even more unrest in the dressing room and ramping the toxicity up a fair few notches.

Arsenal 2-2 Southampton – November 2019

Two more crap Premier League results followed after the Palace draw before welcoming the division’s second lowest scorers, Southampton, to north London.

Danny Ings’ early goal was cancelled out by Alexandre Lacazette before James Ward-Prowse put the visitors back in front with 12 minutes to go. If there was ever a sign of how bad things were, and how little the players wanted Emery to stay in charge, Lacazette didn’t show even a glimmer of celebration when he equalised in the 96th minute.

Yet again Arsenal allowed their opponents to lay siege on their goal, with the Saints clocking up 21 shots despite mustering just 18 from their previous four outings combined. But a few weeks prior they got thumped 9-0 by Leicester.

The playing out of the back was disorganised and foolish with the personnel tasked to perform it, and Emery’s time was surely up.

Arsenal 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt – November 2019

The pain over. The suffering brought to an end.

At least in terms of the man in the dugout, not so much the results.

It was Europa League group opposition Eintracht Frankfurt that would be inducted into Arsenal history as the last side Emery would face as manager.

The German’s didn’t lay a glove on their opponents in the first half, with a strong Arsenal side taking the lead in added time of the first period through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who’d been left out of the previous two Europa League squads.

As per usual, Arsenal let their lead slip courtesy of two Daichi Kamada goals, seeing Frankfurt leapfrog the Gunners into top spot in Group F.

If there was ever any doubt that Emery didn’t know what he was doing, when chasing the game he opted to bring on Lucas Torreira despite having Nicolas Pepe and Lacazette on the bench.

He would be sacked the next day.