Unai Emery took over at Villarreal in the summer, looking to put his time in London behind him, so how is he getting on so far?
The Spaniard has taken charge of seven games so far with Villarreal but only two have been competitive.
The first, a 1-1 draw against SD Huesca left Emery feeling ‘bitter’, a familiar most Arsenal fans can identify with when they think of him.
In his defence, his side did dominate the game, grabbing 66% possession in a manner most Arsenal fans cannot identify with when they think of him.
“I’m left with a bitter taste that we couldn’t begin the season by winning at home,” said Emery after the game.
“We controlled the first half hour, had two goals ruled out and stopped their counter attacks then after the drinks break we gave the ball away a bit and conceded a goal and then lost our rhythm.
“Today we did more than them but it wasn’t enough. I know Huesca have had a good pre-season and are full of hope but we need to demand more of ourselves, we were under a lot of expectation and this made us hasty and anxious,” he added.
“We need to improve and grow. We need to give the ball away less often so we don’t allow teams to counter attack us because we’re not capable of defending well at the moment and it’s costing us goals.
“We need to be ready to play more long passes and our wingers need to be more patient when looking for the final ball and deliver better crosses.”
Next up he registered a 2-1 home win over Eibar with dropped possession stats but double the amount of shots on target that they managed in their first match (8 v4) from the same number of shots (14). His side somehow managed to give away 17 fouls despite only making 12 tackles.
Next up for Emery? Barcelona on Sunday.
It will be his 26th game in charge against Barcelona. Emery has won two, drawn six and lost 17, shipping a total of 64 goals for just 30 scored.
With Barcelona yet to play this season and their summer dominated by the Lionel Messi saga and a chance of manager, it remains to be seen just how they will perform. Maybe this is Unai’s chance to get a rare win against them.