Unai Emery

[LeeB]

What a guy. Just wish he didn't give me a headache when listening to his long-winded answers in interviews and not answering the question. How the fuq do the players understand him?

Balague said that he finds pre and post-match interviews a complete waste of his time but understands he has to do them. The players understand him because his English is much better than comes across in those interviews, he also has staff that are more fluent.

He doesn’t feel like he has to explain himself with regards to personnel changes, he doesn’t want to explain his tactics and isn’t willing to put pressure on us by talking about our title chances.

He can do his interviews via the means of interpretive dance for all I care.

He would somehow go up even further in my estimation if he did.

[Brazilian Villain]

He can do his interviews via the means of interpretive dance for all I care.

He would somehow go up even further in my estimation if he did.

I bet he does a mean Aurresku.

[john e]

What a guy. Just wish he didn't give me a headache when listening to his long-winded answers in interviews and not answering the question. How the fuq do the players understand him?

Balague said that he finds pre and post-match interviews a complete waste of his time but understands he has to do them. The players understand him because his English is much better than comes across in those interviews, he also has staff that are more fluent.

He doesn’t feel like he has to explain himself with regards to personnel changes, he doesn’t want to explain his tactics and isn’t willing to put pressure on us by talking about our title chances.

He can do his interviews via the means of interpretive dance for all I care.

He would somehow go up even further in my estimation if he did.

I can see him channeling a bit of Kate Bush swishing around while saying Babooshka every now and then in the same way he said Bizot

[ez]

We really went from one extreme to another with Gerrard and Emery.

[Ian.]

I was out in the pub last night, I had two Man Utd fans and one Liverpool fan telling me as soon as a big job at Man Utd or Chelsea becomes available Emery’s off. The Liverpool fan was also beaming how they can spend what they want because his club along with a few others (the Sky Cartel), created the PSR rules that pulled the draw bridge down to stop the likes of Villa or Newcastle entering the club.

Arrogant arseholes.

[Percy McCarthy]

I was out in the pub last night, I had two Man Utd fans and one Liverpool fan telling me as soon as a big job at Man Utd or Chelsea becomes available Emery’s off. The Liverpool fan was also beaming how they can spend what they want because his club along with a few others (the Sky Cartel), created the PSR rules that pulled the draw bridge down to stop the likes of Villa or Newcastle entering the club.

Arrogant arseholes.

What time did you get thrown out of the pub for liberal use of the headbutt?

I rapped a Chelsea fan on the head with my knuckles a few times at work last May when he started taking the piss out of us not qualifying for the CL while they did. I did it in a way that it looked like horseplay but he felt it alright. He hasn’t mentioned football since.

[LeeB]

Attwell would've booked the headbutter and headbutee.

[Gerrin]

We really went from one extreme to another with Gerrard and Emery.

Realistically how long have we got him for? He's managed so called 'big' clubs already anyway, without full control. He has it with us though, and I can't see him getting that anywhere else.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Not enough can be said or written on how Unai can change a game from the bench. Yesterday all three subs made a massive impact. As Watkins said, "a tactical genius".

[Brazilian Villain]

Realistically how long have we got him for? He's managed so called 'big' clubs already anyway, without full control. He has it with us though, and I can't see him getting that anywhere else.

It might depend on how well we replace the likes of Martinez, SJM and Ollie over the next year or two.

[Mellin]

For eternity or I'm going tonto.

[Gerrin]

Realistically how long have we got him for? He's managed so called 'big' clubs already anyway, without full control. He has it with us though, and I can't see him getting that anywhere else.

It might depend on how well we replace the likes of Martinez, SJM and Ollie over the next year or two.

I was thinking the same too. He's overachieving with an ageing squad and loan/free signings that he's mostly getting the absolute best from. Such a shame Barkley is out atm.

[Smirker]

Realistically how long have we got him for? He's managed so called 'big' clubs already anyway, without full control. He has it with us though, and I can't see him getting that anywhere else.

It might depend on how well we replace the likes of Martinez, SJM and Ollie over the next year or two.

He'll replace them all easily imo.

I think he's here until Real Madrid want him.

[Chip Butty 111]

I was out in the pub last night, I had two Man Utd fans and one Liverpool fan telling me as soon as a big job at Man Utd or Chelsea becomes available Emery’s off. The Liverpool fan was also beaming how they can spend what they want because his club along with a few others (the Sky Cartel), created the PSR rules that pulled the draw bridge down to stop the likes of Villa or Newcastle entering the club.

Arrogant arseholes.

Haven't both Utd and Chelsea changed their manager whilst Emery has been here? Some of these pub idiots haven't got a clue, and while some of us were playing with jumpers for goalposts they were playing dungeons and dragons....

[SaddVillan]

From The Athletic

IS UNAI EMERY A GENIUS?

OK, calm down, Arsenal fans. I’m just quoting Ollie Watkins, not trying to trigger you ahead of Tuesday.

“He changed it because Chelsea were going man for man, but they had the extra centre-back when we were going long,” the Aston Villa striker said about his manager after scoring twice as a substitute in the 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge on Saturday night. “When I came on in the second half, he brought on Jadon Sancho and Morgan Rogers on the wing and put Youri Tielemans in the No 10, so we had an extra man in there. He’s a tactical genius.”

When a Crystal Palace fan also described Emery as a genius in the wake of the win at Chelsea, one of the replies that came back on social media was that the Spaniard was enjoying “a massive purple patch”. The Palace supporter duly pointed out that three years and two months, or 161 matches to use his statistic, feels quite long for a purple patch.

Villa, lest it be forgotten, were on the road to nowhere when Steven Gerrard was sacked as manager in October 2022, above the relegation zone on goals scored and looking more like a Championship, rather than a Champions League, team.

Emery has transformed the club in the three years since and, at the same time, rebuilt his reputation in England after that difficult spell in charge of Arsenal. He has the highest win percentage of any Villa manager and has overseen 11 straight victories, equalling a club record that was set in 1897 and 1914 (purple patches were more common back then).

In fact, let’s forget the word genius, which means different things to different people, and rephrase the question: is Emery the best manager in the Premier League right now? Could you imagine Pep Guardiola, Mikel Arteta, or anyone else, for that matter, extracting so much from an Aston Villa squad that looked like it had run its race at the start of this season?

It’s an astonishing sequence of results that has propelled Villa from 18th place in the table after five winless games, and on the back of a transfer window in which the £26m spent on the Nice striker Evann Guessand was their only major investment, to being part of a three-horse title race alongside Arsenal and Manchester City.

Emery would dismiss that kind of talk with 20 matches still to play, as would plenty of neutrals. Villa’s expected goals (xG) has become a stick to beat them with, fuelling a belief that they are overachieving and that the current run of results isn’t sustainable. The win over Chelsea, when Villa were outplayed for the best part of an hour and fortunate not to be more than a goal behind at half-time, reinforced that narrative.

But how do you measure resilience, mentality and a never-say-die attitude? And what value do you attach to a manager’s ability to influence key phases in matches with tactical and personnel changes? The fact that Villa have won 18 points from losing positions this season, and that Emery’s substitutes so often deliver (nine goals and counting from the bench), suggests that the answers to those questions are hugely significant in the story of their success so far.

Indeed, it feels as though the most highly expected goal at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night would be for Villa to score after going behind.

Whether that happens or not, Emery returns to his former club as a top manager, respected by his peers, loved by the Villa supporters, and more than capable of delivering another curveball in this title race.