Arsenal take on Villarreal in the Europa League on Thursday night – and that means facing off against their former boss Unai Emery.
The Gunners hammered Slavia Prague in their last European game, but their league form continues to frustrate fans, with last week’s 1-0 defeat to Everton a major disappointment after a 1-1 draw with Fulham.
The Europa League final is within touching distance now though, and Arsenal won’t want to crash out at the hands of Emery – the man they sacked last season.
Emery lost the support of Arsenal fans last term, and Arteta was brought in as his replacement. You could argue that little real progress has been made since that move.
Emery is now in charge of Villarreal, and he would surely love to haunt his former club by dumping them out of the Europa League at this late stage of the competition.
Today, Emery has been talking about the Arsenal squad, and picked out three Gunners players as ‘top quality’ ahead of Thursday’s clash.
Emery told Football.London that he thinks Dani Ceballos, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka all come into that bracket, naming them as Arsenal’s top players.
“They have a very marked identity and they show a lot of progress with Arteta. They have top quality players, Ceballos, Odegaard, Saka,” said Emery.
Saka is undoubtedly a star right now and will continue to excel in the future, with his versatility and qualiy on the ball hugely impressive for such a young player.
Ceballos and Odegaard have shown their quality at times with Arsenal, but the problem for the Gunners is that neither of them are owned by the club; they’re owned by Real Madrid.
The duo may not even be Arsenal players next season as their loan spells end this summer, and Arteta may already need to be looking at potential replacements ahead of next term.
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