Unai Emery Is No Coach

Mesut Özil (left) and Unai Emery

Arsenal have lost the UEFA Europa League Final, to the contemptible Chelsea, 4-1, not in London, nor anywhere else in England, nor anywhere else in Britain. Actually, nowhere else in Europe, as the site is the Olympic Stadium, in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, which is in Asia, but competes in European competitions.

The game was scoreless at the half. But Chelsea took the lead in the 49th minute -- to make matters worse, it was ex-Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud who scored the goal. The Arsenal defense, with former Chelsea man Petr Čech in goal, collapsed after that. Pedro Eliezer Rodríguez Ledesma, who uses only his first name, scored in the 60th.

In the 64th, Ainsley Maitland-Niles fouled Giroud in the penalty area, and referee Gianlucca Rocchi, understandably, awarded a penalty, which Eden Hazard took and scored. Alex Iwobi gave Arsenal hope in the 69th, but Hazard, the latest in a long line of divers who Chelsea have signed, didn't need to dive, and scored in the 72nd.

Not that it mattered by this point, but in the 77th minute, Emery took midfielder Mesut Özil out for a substitution. A camera caught Özil yelling, and somebody who reads lips posted on Twitter that what he said was, "Wallahi, you are not a coach!" Özil, a German of Turkish descent, is a Muslim, and "Wallahi" is an Arabic word, basically meaning, "I swear to God!"

He's right: Emery is not a coach. Not much of one, anyway. A 47-year-old native of northeastern Spain's Basque Country, near the border with France, he is the son, nephew and grandson of pro soccer players. His own playing career didn't amount to much more than theirs. But as a manager, he won 3 straight UEFA Europa League titles with Spanish team Sevilla FC.

This led to his being hired by Paris Saint-Germain, where he won the Coupe de France in 2017, and both the Coupe and Ligue 1 (the French league) for "The Double" in 2018. But PSG, desperate to win the UEFA Champions League, didn't get it, and when the manager's job at Arsenal opened up, they didn't lift a finger to try to keep him.

A small and stupid minority of Arsenal fans were glad to finally be rid of Arsène Wenger after 22 mostly successful years, and talked about the wonderful change at the club. In fact, things got worse: Emery alienated 3 of the key figures at Arsenal in recent years: Özil, centreback Laurent Koscielny and midfielder Aaron Ramsey, benching them. He frequently refused to play Özil, because "He doesn't fit the system." He never figured it out: If Mesut Özil doesn't fit your system, you need to change your system. Especially given that Emery bought midfielders Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi, and proved he didn't have a clue as to how to use either one. He has already sold Ramsey, and Özil Koscielny could well be on their way out as well. (UPDATE: Over the Summer, they were sold.)

Emery had 5 chances to get Arsenal into the 2019-20 Champions League: The last 4 Premier League games of the 2019 season, which would have allowed them to finish 4th in the PL; and the Europa League Final. Winning any one of those games would have done it. He won none of them.

And this is supposed to be an improvement over Wenger, even the last few years? By his standards, just being in the Europa League, instead of the Champions League, is a failure.

As Emery himself would say, "Good ebening."