Unai Emery had been sacked

Unai Emery has lost his job after last night’s defeat at home to Frankfurt in the Europa League. The writing had been on the Wall with Arsenal not winning in 7 matches and this match being the last test for him.

Emery only lasted in the Arsenal job 18 months and after guiding his team to a 5th placed finish last year and to the Europa League final where they lost to Chelsea this season has not gone so well. His team has only won four games in the Premier League and leaves them in 8th place and 8 points behind the top four.

But for a manager with a good reputation and seen as an ideal candidate to replace Wenger what went wrong? Well, he came in with an idea of the way he wanted to play but the players he had did not really suit that style and struggled to adapt to it. No one used more players or more formations in the last 18 months than Emery which shows how much he changes his team and he also was not afraid to change the whole style and formation at half time. Furthermore, his public falling out with Ozil and with Xhaka, two of his senior players put a strain on the squad. He also did not get the right players for what he wanted especially in defense which really showed in his tenure because his team could rarely keep a clean sheet and were culpable of some very naïve mistakes at the back.

Freddie Ljungberg has been out in temporary charge with the Arsenal hierarchy decides what to do. He will be given a couple of games to see how he does but the board will probably decide to hire someone with more experience. They are rumours that Allegri and Nuno Santo are the favoured options but Santos will probably not leave Wolves in the middle of the season so Allegri is a more likely option. They could also go for other ex-Arsenal players in Vieira or Arteta. One option that seems quite unlikely but is being considered is Pochettino swapping North London clubs and going to manage Arsenal. That would be quite a betrayal to Spurs and their fans which is why it is quite unlikely to happen. Arsenal face Norwich on the weekend in their first match in the post-Emery life and we will see how Ljungberg fares.