Henry: Arsenal were too quick to replace Emery with Arteta

Suraj Radia

• 3 Oct 2024 17:00 BST
• 3 min read

Thierry Henry has admitted he would have liked Unai Emery to have more time to succeed at Arsenal after seeing how the Aston Villa boss has led his side.

Emery was given the unenviable task of replacing Arsene Wenger at Arsenal in 2018 but the Spaniard lasted just 18 months at the helm before being sacked in November 2019 and replaced by Mikel Arteta.

After rebuilding his reputation with Villarreal, Emery was appointed Villa manager in October 2022, steering the Midlands side away from relegation to qualify for the Europa Conference League before finishing in the top four last season.

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Villa have continued their progress this season, sitting a point behind Arsenal and beating Bayern Munich in the Champions League this week, leading to Henry rueing his former side’s hasty decision to sack Emery.

“It's no disrespect to what Mikel Arteta is doing and he's doing extremely well for Arsenal, but I just thought that if we kept him a bit longer he would have been a success at Arsenal,” Henry said on CBS Sports.

"He did show it straight after when he left the club. I have massive respect for him."

Arteta proving worth after taking time to build on Emery work

Arsenal finished fifth in Emery’s only full season in charge – one position higher than the previous campaign and one point off the top four – but the ex-Paris Saint-Germain boss was sacked with the Gunners in seventh after a seven-game winless run.

Emery struggled to fill the boots of Wenger and motivate his Arsenal side, leading to mockery from some sections of the fanbase and prompting the Gunners to pursue a fan favourite in Arteta.

Arteta finished in eighth after replacing Emery, although he won the FA Cup in his first season too before once again finishing eighth in his first full campaign.

It was only after making wholesale changes to his squad – something which Emery was not given the opportunity to do – that Arsenal progressed into title contenders and top four regulars, which Villa are hoping to emulate in the future.