Well, Unai Emery got revenge on former club Arsenal last night.
Emery returned to the Emirates Stadium with Villarreal and sent Arsenal crashing out of the Europa League at the semi-final stage.
The Spaniard’s side secured a 0-0 draw in North London which was enough to give them a 2-1 aggregate victory.
There’ll have been a sense of triumph for the former Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain coach, who was fired by Arsenal in November of 2019, after guiding the Gunners to the final of this very competition only six months earlier.
At full-time, the away dugout spilled on to the field in celebration last night but Emery was professional and classy as he first offered his sympathies to his oppposite number, Mikel Arteta.
And speaking to a post-match press conference, Arteta said when asked of Emery’s actions: “I think he’s always been like that. Not only now, but throughout his career he’s always been a manager that behaves like that.”
Last night felt like a watershed moment for Arteta in North London.
The rookie Spaniard has been backed by a lot of Arsenal fans this season, despite sitting ninth in the Premier League table.
But last night’s defeat means that the Gunners won’t have European football of any kind next season for the first time in 26 years.
Arsene Wenger was moved aside in 2018 because Arsenal had fallen out of the Champions League and showed no sign of getting back into it.
But under Emery, the Emirates Stadium side finished one point outside of the top four in his first season and they now look absolutely miles away from even that standard, which was already not good enough.
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