Unai Emery

[Smithy]

He's got us up to 6th now. That's where O'Neil stalled. I remember talk of that being our glass ceiling. I'm backing Emery to continue into 5th place this season.  Maybe even 4th.

O'Neil "stalled" with three successive 6th-place finishes.  Much as I love our upward trajectory, the next bit is the really hard part, and we're still less than year into our journey with Unai.  Even if we finished 6th this year, I'd still see it as great progress in establishing ourselves as a European-place-challenging premier league side whilst ALSO competing in Europe.  If we then finished 6th again the following year (Emery's third season), then you MIGHT start talking about us having "stalled".

If the club continue to back him, I genuinely think the top four and beyond is only a question of time, rather than a question of 'if'.  If he's still our manager in five years' time, I will be stunned if we don't have trophies and Champions League adventures to point at.

[chrisw1]

Agree.  If we finish 6th we'll have finished above three of Chelsea, Man Utd, Spurs, Newcastle and Brighton

[OCD]

The league was less competitive when O'Neill was manager. A David Moyes Everton side was consistently finishing above us. Now there's 10 or 11 sides that could arguably finish top 6 given the right circumstances.

[exigo]

We're joint third in a league table of 2023. I'd back Emery to break through the glass ceiling.

[Clark W Griswold]

It was, and they could.

Funnily enough i was talking about this earlier with a workmate, O' Neill was a good manager and we didn't have anyone as good until Unai but the problem was he didn't have a plan B. This showed up at home in particular when we couldn't break teams down. He also had a pretty set 12-13 players he liked to use. Unai on the other hand seems to have many plans for different opponents, different situations in games and that's where his quality lies. My only gripe with him at the moment is that we'll be in big trouble if Martinez gets injured and to a less extent if Cash does.

[pauliewalnuts]

Totally agree.

Under MON we were two different sides - away from home where more often than not we could counter attack, plenty of goals and exciting matches.

At home, where the opposition were more defensive and we couldn’t counter attack so much we were much more austere to watch.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

As you say, our home form under him was poor. There was never a Plan B with MON.

[Somniloquism]

Great to see him being confident (didn’t scratch his neck once) and he’s obviously chuffed.

Onwards and upwards!

I thought we had been reliably told that meant he was lying by a body language expert.

(As an aside, when did he say he would be back? January?)

[Somniloquism]

Totally agree.

Under MON we were two different sides - away from home where more often than not we could counter attack, plenty of goals and exciting matches.

At home, where the opposition were more defensive and we couldn’t counter attack so much we were much more austere to watch.

At home we had to hope for a major defensive clanger or an individual bit of skill to get us an early goal. If neither happened you could guarantee a drab probably 0-0.

[olaftab]

As you say, our home form under him was poor. There was never a Plan B with MON.

Come on that's not fair. He had a master plan B which was to take off the right back and stick Milner there. Of course that made the midfield  totally ineffective as Sidwell couldn't quite do what Milner did  never mind provide any new impetus but it was a plan B.

[Toronto Villa]

He really doesn't do draws does he?

He doesn’t do 0-0 draws. In fact I’m pretty sure he’s never had one managing in the PL. Some crazy stat like that.

[Mister E]

Totally agree.
Under MON we were two different sides - away from home where more often than not we could counter attack, plenty of goals and exciting matches.
At home, where the opposition were more defensive and we couldn’t counter attack so much we were much more austere to watch.

Generally, you're right, but I was at Stamford Bridge when MON's Villa side got the 8-1 tonking (Deco took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half and absolutely mullered us). The away-game strategy was fading fast by then.

[Somniloquism]

Totally agree.
Under MON we were two different sides - away from home where more often than not we could counter attack, plenty of goals and exciting matches.
At home, where the opposition were more defensive and we couldn’t counter attack so much we were much more austere to watch.

Generally, you're right, but I was at Stamford Bridge when MON's Villa side got the 8-1 tonking (Deco took the game by the scruff of the neck in the second half and absolutely mullered us). The away-game strategy was fading fast by then.

I wouldn't have said it was fading fast, more the we were playing them in MON's MONW (Month of no wins*). This was down to playing the same players each and every match without change as well. They would tire in the second half of the season so the fast breaks would be more lethargic and the defenders slow in the tackle. It also coincided with Chelsea being knocked out of the CL and wanting to win the league as consolation (and the cup).

*I tell a lie, we won once in March in that same season.

[LeeB]

It was 7-1 wasn't it?

[Somniloquism]

It was 7-1 wasn't it?

Yes, I meant to correct that in my reply as well. 8-0 was a couple of season later.