Much like David Moyes at Manchester United after Sir Alex Ferguson, replacing Arsène Wenger at Arsenal was always going to be a tough task for Unai Emery.
While the two managerial changes came after different levels of success, the Spaniard has still found it difficult, especially of late, to keep the Gunners fully competitive despite an impressive run of form earlier on in the season.
Currently fourth in the Premier League, one point in front of Manchester United, Arsenal are currently in sporadic form, losing three of their last seven games but most recently beating Southampton 2-0.
One of the reasons why the club could be seesawing is Unai Emery’s methods off the pitch, which Benoit Trémoulinas, in an interview with RMC Sport, discussed in detail, criticising some aspects along the way.
He said: “His way of working was very difficult. He asked a lot in training, the sessions were really long. The night before games, normally you would train for 40-50 mins, but he would then add an extra 45 mins of set pieces, for example, on top of that.
“There was a lot of weariness, but because of all that we won two Europa Leagues, so I can’t spit on his methods, but it’s true they didn’t work for me, I’ll be honest”.
One of the other aspects of Unai Emery’s approach to games that didn’t particularly please the former left-back was his insistence on having multiple video sessions every week.
He continued: “It was draining. Sometimes, when we played clubs like Barcelona or Real Madrid, you had like 3-4 video sessions per week, but wait, the worst was that just before the game, just before warm-up, he gave us a last session for 35 minutes, just in case.
“Then, he gave us his speech and tried to involve us, asking us what we should in these situations. It was tough. He exhausted me. He could see it. Imagine, you have an hour of video before training, your brain isn’t working right after that”.
A little insight in Unai Emery’s methods for Arsenal fans.
At least, that’s how things were at Sevilla. Perhaps he’s changed since moving to the Emirates.
