Unai Emery opens up about his doomed Arsenal reign
Unai Emery explains why he thinks his spell at Arsenal ultimately ended badly
Unai Emery has claimed that some Arsenal players had bad attitudes during his spell in charge of the north London side.
The Spaniard was sacked by the Gunners back in November after his Arsenal side made a poor start to the Premier League season.
Emery had led Arsenal to a fifth-placed finish in the Premier League and the Europa League final last season in his first campaign in charge, but a bad start to this campaign ultimately led to his downfall.
Mikel Arteta was drafted in to replace Emery at the end of December and the Gunners have shown signs of improvement since then.
Now, Emery has opened up about why he thinks his spell in charge at The Emirates ultimately ended on a sour note.
Speaking in an interview with France Football, as quoted by Sky Sports, Emery said: “Arsenal was a club on a downward slope for two years before I arrived.
“We stopped this fall and even began to rebuild the club with the Europa League final and fifth place in the league, only one point off Tottenham despite the fact that we took just one point in our final five matches.
“We had Champions League qualification in our grasp and it went wrong in the end. But it was a good season and we had this notion of continuing to improve.
“But we lost our four captains: [Laurent] Koscielny, [Petr] Cech, [Aaron] Ramsey and [Nacho] Monreal.
“They were personalities that we missed this season to stay on the right track, and some stars did not have a good attitude and asked for more than what they were giving back.
“Taking all of that into account, we needed time to succeed with our transition to a new Arsenal, which is what I wanted.”
Arsenal – who were beaten by Chelsea FC in the Europa League final last term – are currently in 10th place in the Premier League table as they prepare for their home clash against Newcastle United on Sunday.
The north London side are 10 points behind fourth-placed Chelsea FC as they bid to try and keep their hopes of Champions League qualification alive.
