Arsenal's sacking of Unai Emery on Friday was far from unexpected and Opta data paints a bleak picture of his tenure at the Emirates Stadium.
Emery's dismissal was confirmed in an official club statement the morning after Arsenal had thrown away a half-time lead to lose 2-1 to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League.
That result extended the Gunners' winless streak to seven games in all competitions. Despite taking charge of 1,235 matches as Arsenal boss, Emery's predecessor Arsene Wenger never endured such a long winless run. Indeed, this is Arsenal's worst run since 1992, when George Graham was at the helm for a stretch of eight games without a victory.
With the help of Opta, we look at several other statistics that highlight why Emery lost his job.
- Arsenal are without a win in five Premier League matches (W0 D3 L2). When they face Norwich City on Sunday, it will have been 56 days since they last won a top-flight match (1-0 v Bournemouth on October 6). The last time they went so long without a win during a Premier League season was a 56-day barren spell between January 1 and February 26 in 1994.
56 - When Arsenal play Norwich City on Sunday, it'll be 56 days since their last Premier League victory. This is their longest wait for a league win within a season since the 56 days between January 1st and February 26th 1994. Crisis. pic.twitter.com/wA9vsWI0SJ
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 29, 2019
- Emery won just 49% of his 51 Premier League games in charge at the Emirates Stadium (W25 D13 L13). His overall win ratio of 55% is inflated by the fact he oversaw 14 victories in 20 Europa League fixtures, but it does represent the third-best figure of any Arsenal manager to have taken charge of 20+ games. Only Wenger (57.3%) and Joe Shaw (60.9%) have won a higher proportion of games.
- Since taking charge of Arsenal for the first time in August 2018, Emery has won 88 points in the Premier League – the same tally as rivals Tottenham. Only three clubs have a better haul in this period, but Arsenal's 88-point tally is 46 fewer than Liverpool in that time.
- Arsenal have conceded 70 Premier League goals under Emery – more than any other 'big six' club since the start of 2018-19.
- Only Liverpool and Manchester City have won more points at home than Arsenal's 58 during Emery's tenure, but the Gunners have managed a measly 30 points from 25 away Premier League fixtures, keeping only two clean sheets in those games.
- Arsenal have picked up only 18 points from 13 matches in 2019-20, their worst start to a Premier League campaign. Sitting eighth, they trail leaders Liverpool by 19 points, the biggest gap they have ever conceded at this point in a season.
- Early in Emery's tenure, Arsenal recorded a 22-game unbeaten streak, the third-best in their history. However, since that run ended in December 2018, they have only once gone more than four matches without losing.
- In both of Emery's seasons as Arsenal manager, the Gunners have allowed their opponents to attempt more shots than they have attempted themselves in the Premier League. In seasons where Opta have this data (since 2003-04), this was never the case under Wenger.
- Nine different players (Laurent Koscielny, Granit Xhaka, Petr Cech, Mesut Ozil, Nacho Monreal, Aaron Ramsey, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Hector Bellerin and Rob Holding) have started as captain for Arsenal under Emery.
9 – Unai Emery named nine different Arsenal captains during his 78 games in charge, with only one of those players wearing the armband on more than 20 occasions (Laurent Koscielny, 24). Whimsical. pic.twitter.com/efEBbMfXTB
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) November 29, 2019
- Arsenal won exactly the same number of points (88) in Emery's 51 Premier League games in charge as they did in Wenger's final 51 matches at the helm.