Premier League: Gerrard the Villain as Emery lives the Villa life

THE writing was on the wall for Steven Gerrard, long before the Fulham game. His Aston Villa side were facing the Cottagers in a win-or-be-fired encounter for the former legendary Liverpool midfielder. In the end, a humiliating 3-0 away defeat saw him quickly cast as the 'Villian' in the story and he was handed his lunch wrapped in his P45 at Villa Park.

The subsequent Villa result, after Gerrard's departure, saw them beat an accomplished Brentford side 4-0, indicating that the former England and Liverpool captain had well and truly lost the dressing room before his managerial demise.

Rumours and speculation for Gerrard's future in management immediately started to do the rounds. And they range from a return to the helm at Ibrox in Scotland to maybe moving in on the faltering reign of Jesse Marsch in Leeds United. Both of these may be seen as leaping from the pan into the fire in managerial terms.

Time is on his side and Gerrard may do well to let the dust settle on his managerial term before jumping back into the game. Especially, as a wrong foot now may ruin any plans he might have of eventually taking charge at Anfield.

Anyway, that is speculation for another day. For now, Villa were quick to find Gerrard's replacement and the news was quickly confirmed that Unai Emery would be the club’s new manager, starting November 1.

Notably, taking charge, three days after Villa's tricky away clash with Newcastle United today. So if they fail against the in-form Geordies, at least it won't be a stain on Emery's record. Mind you, his opening game will be no walk in the park, as they face an improving Man United a week later. At least Emery will have the advantage (maybe) of being at home.

Emery concerns

The appointment of Emery may have raised some eyebrows. After all, his short term at Arsenal was not seen as a success story to any notable degree. His Emirates tenure was shortlived and engendered quite a bit of criticism from the Arsenal faithful at the time.

However, when one looks back at Emery's time with the Gunners, it would be fair to say that he suffered from some unlucky comparisons and was a lot more successful than subsequent years turned out to be, right up until the recent improvements under Mikel Arteta.

The problem, of course, for Emery was that he suffered from the unfair circumstances of taking charge of a club directly after the departure of a legendary manager in Arsene Wenger. The hard to compete with comparisons of an earlier great leader, coupled with acquiring a club on the natural downside of the cycle of success, led to some harsh criticisms of his management skills and an unfair analysis of his record.

Emery only had one full season with the Gunners, and it was no worse than Wenger’s last, and somewhat better than the two seasons that followed. But he was seen as a failure, so perception trumped statistics.

Now there were some issues of communication difficulties that led to accusations that Emery was a prickly and obtuse man to deal with is largely hearsay, but criticism of his record is harsh and he had little time to rectify any situations at the club.

Winning record

Overall no one can criticise his body of work as a football manager. Emery has been a coach since the end of 2004. Over that period, of almost 18 years, his win percentage has never dipped below 46.2% and that was 'achieved' during his ill-fated six months spell in charge at Spartak Moscow, a decade ago.

Most of all, Emery has been the king of the Europa League for the best part of a decade. 

The Spaniard won Europe's second most prestigious cup title, three years in a row when Sevilla won the Europa League from 2013 to 2016. And if that wasn't enough, he returned to Spain in 2021 to win the Europa Cup again. This time with Villarreal, beating Manchester United on penalties in the final after knocking Arsenal out in the semi-finals.

There is no doubt that Emery is a manager of skill, experience, and success. Again, time will tell if he is the fit for the English game, or will he struggle to communicate and convince the players of his plans, as was the case in Arsenal.

And for no other reason, it will be interesting to see if he can continue his run of success at clubs with Villa in the name, Sevilla... Villarreal... Aston Villa. It's as good as any other reason to be hopeful as a Villa fan, in this crazy world of the football merry-go-round.