Maurizio Sarri’s start with Chelsea has been phenomenal, but has it really been more impressive than Unai Emery’s at Arsenal? Here is an analysis of the two.
The media have rhapsodized Maurizio Sarri’s birth in English football, and rightly so. Despite such a short pre-season and the hindrance of the summer’s World Cup, Sarri has hit the ground running and is yet to lose a game.
The Italian will set a record for the longest unbeaten run by a new Premier League manager should his side avoid defeat against Everton on Sunday.
Unai Emery, on the other, has gone somewhat under the radar in comparison. One reason is the Spaniard’s initial baptism of fire. Emery failed to pick up a point in his opening couple of fixtures as Arsenal hosted the division’s ruthless champions before travelling to Stamford Bridge.
But Arsenal is now reaping the rewards of the backbone shown by Emery to steadfastly stick to his principles. The Gunners have gone fifteen games unbeaten since the loss at Chelsea and #EmeryOut (trending on the opening day) has quietly transformed to #EmeryBall (trending last weekend).
Squads
In Eden Hazard and N’golo Kante, Sarri inherited a couple of bonafide superstars to work with. The majority of others had won the Premier League title only two seasons ago and, despite the toxicity of the manager/board relationship, finished seven points ahead of Arsenal and with an FA Cup medal last campaign.
The depth of Chelsea’s squad was highlighted last weekend versus Crystal Palace when The Blues could send on Hazard, Mateo Kovacic, and Cesc Fabregas to go and get the points.
It’s fair to say Emery inherited a much lighter and more unbalanced squad in comparison. The manager has had to do considerably more chopping and changing along the way to get things to click – such as shifting Pierre Aubameyang about and deploying a carousel of players at left back due to Nacho Monreal’s injuries.
Styles
Sarri’s footballing philosophy is no doubt unique and differs to his predecessors at The Bridge. However, the Chelsea players are more than used to taking orders from new managers and some of Sarri’s hallmarks were already in place.
The team deployed an aggressive press when out of possession under Antonio Conte and, although he was not averse to a route one long ball, quick passing up the field was a common feature. Furthermore, Conte had instilled the side with a voracious work rate during his title-winning campaign.
Emery faced a much greater task at Arsenal. Wenger’s laissez-faire manifesto was all the players had ever known while donning the red jersey. Any rational fan conceded a couple of steps back must be taken before moving forward – especially attempting to introduce the high line, high pressing, and high intensity advocated by Emery.
The unknown that hung in the air was in some ways like to wait for the Millenium Bug (Year 2000 problem). No one knew how computer systems would respond to the change that inevitably had to happen and many feared the worst. But, similar to Emery’s start, apart from a few early glitches there were no major malfunctions.
Results
As already mentioned, Sarri is on the verge of making history and boasts eight wins and three draws in the Premier League thus far. He is also the only manager to maintain a 100% record in Europe and Chelsea are in the quarters of the League Cup – in part courtesy of a third-round victory at Anfield.
There have been some fine performances along the way and the pinnacle was probably Alvaro Morata finishing off a 31 pass move to put Chelsea 3-0 up against Southampton.
Emery’s record isn’t all too dissimilar. Discounting his first two games, the Spaniard has seven wins and two draws. The Gunners are also through to the next round in Europe and have a tasty League Cup quarter-final tie against Spurs to look forward to.
Despite not claiming all three points against Liverpool last weekend, it was probably Arsenal’s most impressive display – largely thanks to new signing Lucas Torreira. The tenacious Uruguayan perhaps embodies Emery’s style of play akin to how Jorginho epitomizes Sarri’s.
Conclusion
In most other seasons the two sides would be pacesetters with their current points tallies and both managers can attribute their success to a couple of shared virtues: a relentless work ethic and good rapport.
Sarri lives and breathes football. He has drones film training at Cobham so he can study the sessions in labyrinthine detail when he returns home. By the end of August, remarkably, the Italian claimed he had only had the chance to visit central London once.
Sarri said it would take three months for his side to click; yet, they are already singing in tune from the same sheet. Such a quick response by the players pays homage to the laid-back Italian’s man management skills.
Emery is also well known for his painstaking meticulous nature and is another obsessed with video analysis. His former student Joaquin joked they were forced to watch so many videos that he ‘ran out of popcorn.’
This week Alex Iwobi spoke of how the extra analysis, as well as additional training shifts were paying off. He also commented on the togetherness of the group under Emery saying it felt like a ‘big family.’
It is perhaps unfair to conclude that one manager’s start has been less impressive than the other’s. However, Sarri will likely be the headline grabber on Sunday and I can’t help but feel the mountains moved in the North of London were considerably steeper than those in the South West.