Unai Emery: Arsenal Declined Under Wenger

By Joshua Walters

Unai Emery has slammed Arsenal’s quality under Arsene Wenger and says the Gunners were on a decline under the French trainer because they lacked balance in defence and attack.

Arsenal were struggling when Emery arrived this season, finishing sixth in the Premier League with 63 points to mark the lowest point haul in Wenger's 22-year stay at the club.

Emery has improved the Gunners this season and pushed them to three points off the top four, having gone sixteen games unbeaten in all competitions this term.

The Spaniard told Marca his major focus when he took over the Arsenal job was to fix the defensive structure and also get the team to compete against its rivals.

“With time, only technical quality and offensive freedom were taken care of while losing defensive structure,” Emery told the Spanish newspaper.

“What I want is to combine both and become more competitive. Arsenal were in a decline. We had to stop this, and begin climbing.”