I’m not going to lie, when I started this article about Unai Emery’s Arsenal win percentage, this was not what I was expecting to find…

SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND - OCTOBER 21: Unai Emery, Manager of Arsenal inspects the pitch ahead of the Premier League match between Sheffield United and Arsenal FC at Bramall Lane on October 21, 2019 in Sheffield, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
SHEFFIELD, ENGLAND – OCTOBER 21: Unai Emery, Manager of Arsenal inspects the pitch ahead of the Premier League match between Sheffield United and Arsenal FC at Bramall Lane on October 21, 2019 in Sheffield, United Kingdom. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Sometimes, you think you know how things are.

You go looking for an answer that you think you already have. You’re looking, obviously, for confirmation that you are right.

A lot of the time I’m wrong about things and it’s not clear what that means. This is one of those times.

Just about the only thing Arsenal fans can agree on is that Unai Emery has united them in a single cause – to see him leave Arsenal, sooner rather than later, preferably. The performances are terrible and, save for two worldies from Nicolas Pepe, we’d be sitting here trying not to discuss losing to both Sheffield United AND a side that hadn’t even scored in the Europa League until they came to the home of the group favourites.

It is not good.

But how bad is it really, I wondered, compared to others that have gone before?

It feels like we lose a lot, but it seems this is more to do with Emery making winning also feel like losing because, compared to every other permanent Arsenal manager we’ve ever had, the Spaniard wins more games.

I’ll give you a minute, I know I needed one…

…Ready to continue?

Yes, that’s right. Arsenal have had 26 managers, if you include those who held only a caretaker role, and Emery is winning more matches than nearly all of them.

Emery has taken charge of 71 Arsenal games winning 43, drawing 11 and losing 17. That’s a win percentage of 60.56.

He is only outperformed by three people, all of whom were caretakers and one of whom doesn’t even have a name.

arsenal manager win percent

I don’t pretend to mean anything with all this, it just surprised me.

Herbert Chapman’s win rate is very poor in comparison to many others but who among us would doubt his status as a legend of the club and the father of modern football, part 1?

What it does highlight, perhaps, is how far standards have increased since ‘back in the day’. Teams need to win more to win anything at all.

Winning is always good. Another thing we can all agree on, I’m sure.

Still, he doesn’t have to make us claw out our own eyes while he does it, does he?