Arsenal, after months of under-performance on the pitch, and months of fan-fueled debate, discussion, and frustration off it, finally did what they should have done in October, relieving Unai Emery of his responsibilities today.
Emery was brought in, ostensibly, to win the Europa League, a feat he’d accomplished three times in a row at Valencia.
It wasn’t an unreasonable hire – the thought process was that Emery could get Arsenal back to the CL, and then maybe another coach could get them back to consistently being in the CL after that.
Things started fairly brightly under Emery – Arsenal reeled off 14 games unbeaten, including seven straight wins, at the beginning of last season, after all.
But even those games were somewhat unconvincing – in many of them, Arsenal were losing at half time, only to mount a furious comeback in the second half to claim the point(s). We all know what Arsenal have been like since about April of the 2018/19 season, so there’s not a whole lot of point in rehashing that in detail here; suffice it to say this day was a long time coming, and as mentioned, some ways overdue.
Emery leaves the club having won 25 Premier League matches in two seasons, against 13 losses and 13 draws.