After Aston Villa's latest win over Arsenal, there have been claims that Unai Emery should never have made way for Mikel Arteta at the Emirates Stadium, but how true is this sentiment?
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This past weekend, Emery completed an extraordinary feat as he made it 15 straight league wins at Villa Park, with a seventh-minute John McGinn strike proving the decisive goal in the victory over his former side. The result moves the Birmingham-based side within a point of last season's runners-up, prompting many to say that Emery should've been given more time as head coach of Arsenal, including club icon Tony Adams.
Indeed, the Basque tactician has done a phenomenal job since taking the reins at the home of the 1981/82 European champions. He has turned a side that was battling relegation under Steven Gerrard into a club that now appears to be contending for the Premier League title.
However, at Villa, the Spaniard walked into a club with a settled hierarchy, while that was not the case when he first made his way to England.
When the four-time UEFA Europa League winner arrived in north London in July 2018, the Gunners were in a large state of flux after the departure of arguably their greatest-ever manager in Arsene Wenger. After an extensive search and interviews with various candidates, one of which was Arteta, the newly assembled Arsenal football hierarchy decided that Emery was the man to permanently succeed the Frenchman.
The ex-Paris Saint-Germain boss started well, going on a 22-game unbeaten streak in all competitions early on, but by the end of the season he had lost a lot of the leverage he had among the fans. Failure to finish in the top four and a 4-1 defeat to Chelsea in the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League final saw the beginning of the end of Emery's time at London Colney. What was needed at that time, one could say, was somebody who was going to be responsible for much more than prioritising coaching the first team, something the Hondarribia native was not particularly comfortable with. His heavy reliance on sporting director Monchi throughout his career is a testament to that, and it has worked for him and continues to do so at Villa.
At Arsenal, this is the model they wanted to implement shortly before Emery's arrival with the appointment of Raul Sanllehi as director of football, but after the downfall of the former midfielder and the recruitment Arteta, Sanllehi quickly followed the former Sevilla boss out the exit door as the former club captain went from first-team head coach to manager in under a year.
Having been an assistant coach to Pep Guardiola at Manchester City, learning from him about how to cultivate a winning culture, it seems that not only has the 41-year-old taken Pep's teachings, but he understood the influence he needed to have in order to instil what he wanted in the club if he was going to be successful. He lets the likes of Edu Gaspar (Arsenal sporting director) and Per Mertesacker (Arsenal academy manager) do their roles with absolute freedom, but he is very much in the know about what is happening on the academy, scouting and transfer fronts, as well as spearheading the tactics of it all, as seen in the cub's Amazon Prime documentary, All or Nothing.
Some may feel that this role of manager is outdated, but having been a player under Wenger, one of the last great managers of his generation, and having also seen how a successful modern institution such as City operates under Guardiola, Arteta seemingly has the tools to work in this way.
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There are many other things that go into being a successful manager than just tactics, even in today's day and age, and while Emery may be a good tactician, Arteta encompasses more of the managerial intangibles that go into leading a massive football club to success.
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