Villarreal are thriving under Unai Emery after his sacking by Arsenal

On Dec 25, 2020

And it gets worse for Arsenal fans: Unai Emery has turned Villarreal into a record-breaking team of tidy, honest players thriving in LaLiga after being hung out to dry at the Emirates

Unai Emery was sacked by Arsenal last year but is now thriving at Villarreal
The Spaniard has taken the side into the top four and has set an unbeaten record
Villarreal have gone 19 games unbeaten and look like a group of honest players
Guiding them into the Champions League will send a message to the Gunners
He will take no pleasure at their crisis and will sympathise with Mikel Arteta

Published: 12:05 EST, 23 December 2020 | Updated: 12:05 EST, 23 December 2020

If, as the saying goes, living well is the best revenge, then Unai Emery is certainly getting his own back on those he will always believe opened the trapdoor beneath him far too soon at Arsenal.

While his old club languish in the Premier League, his new team Villarreal set a new club record on Tuesday night and are in the Champions League places in LaLiga.

Villarreal should probably have beaten Athletic Bilbao. As it was their draw extended their unbeaten run to 19 games – the best in the club’s history – and it kept them above Barcelona in the top four.

Unai Emery will be out to prove Arsenal wrong after a successful season so far with Villarreal

The Spaniard has led the team to an unbeaten run of 19 games as they sit in LaLiga’s top four

Emery did his best to stay calm when he gave an interview to Sportsmail back in May, but there were times when his frustration got the better of him.

‘No one inside the club knew how to protect me. They would say: “Yeah, Unai, we’re with you” but to the fans and the dressing room, they weren’t able to do it,’ he said as he explained how he believed he’d been hung out to dry at the first sign that his reign was not going to be just one long succession of improvements.

He says his difficulties in mastering English was used as a stick to beat him with. ‘It’s like when I said “good ebening”, okay it should be “good evening”, I needed to practice my accent so that it was more “good evening” than “good ebening”.

He was frustrated at Arsenal and believes he was hung out to dry before his sacking last year

‘But when I said “good ebening” after a good result it was just a joke, when we were losing it was a disgrace,’ he said.

Back in La Liga he’s speaking his own language again, not that that saves him from being teased.

The popular Monday night football highlights show El Dia Despues has a resident impressionist Raul Perez. Three weeks ago he turned his attention to Emery, wearing the club shop and waving his arms around like an air traffic controller.

But Emery was Perez’s target because everyone is talking about Villarreal, and everyone is talking about Villarreal because they are playing so well.

At Villarreal, he is bringing the best out of his players,…