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Unai Emery
Unai Emery said Arsenal ‘need to improve on the pitch with our personality and our ideas’. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
Unai Emery said Arsenal ‘need to improve on the pitch with our personality and our ideas’. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images

Unai Emery praises Rafael Benítez’s impact and demands Arsenal improve

This article is more than 5 years old
Emery hails Benítez as a pioneer for Spanish coaches
Arsenal manager wants to make mark in Europa League

Unai Emery has hailed Rafael Benítez as a trailblazer for Spanish coaches working in England before their meeting at Newcastle on Saturday. “He is the first of the Spanish coaches to be working here,” Arsenal’s manager said. “He knows the Premier League. He got the best performance with a lot of teams and above all with Liverpool.”

Benítez is in his 24th season as a head coach, Emery in his 15th, yet these compatriots have seldom crossed managerial swords. A rare meeting took place in 2015, when Emery’s Sevilla upset Benítez’s Real Madrid by ending a long unbeaten run. “I know Benítez, he is a very competitive coach and his teams are usually also competitive,” Emery said before facing opponents feeling the pressure at the uncomfortable end of the table.

Away games were a repetitive problem for Arsenal last season and Emery was pleased to see his team win at Cardiff last time out – but that was not a performance that oozed authority and cohesion. “We need to improve on the pitch with our personality and our ideas,” he said. “We want to do better than the last match in Cardiff. We want the same result but we can be better on the pitch.”

If the international break allowed Emery a moment to take stock, he wants to attack this next phase of the season with the ambition to make an impression across different competitions. Next Thursday they begin their Europa League campaign with a home game against Ukraine’s FC Vorskla. It is a competition close to Emery’s heart as a three-times winner with Sevilla.

He gives it considerable focus. “When we opened this possibility that when you win the Europa League you play in the Champions League, this is the key to improving the interest in this competition,” he said.

“We played in the final against Liverpool [in 2015-16]. For Liverpool it was very important because they missed the Premier League top four, and they needed it to go into the Champions League. We won. Manchester United played in it also [in 2016-17] and reached the Champions League through this competition. The last year for Arsenal it was very, very important. We lost in the semi-finals to Atlético Madrid. The Europa League can help a lot.”

Arsène Wenger, Emery’s predecessor, made a strategic decision to change virtually his entire squad for Europa League group matches, only reintegrating his first choice XI for the knockout phase. It seems Emery wants to be more flexible.

“I have proven with my experience to know the best way to manage the players,” he said. “My idea isn’t to change 11 players between one competition and the next competition.”

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