Arsenal coach Unai Emery has admitted that Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is a better manager than him ahead of their clash on the 12th August 2018.
Emery will take charge of the Gunners in a competitive match for the first time on Sunday afternoon when the Premier League champions travel to the Emirates Stadium. The Spaniard knows former Barcelona boss Guardiola well from their time in La Liga, where he failed to win any of their 10 meetings as manager of Valencia and Sevilla. Ahead of their first showdown on English soil, Emery has welcomed the challenge of getting one over on his compatriot.
“I am 46, he is 47 and he started his career as a player, bigger than me,” he said at his pre-match presser. “His career as a coach is also bigger than mine. We started our careers as coaches at maybe the same kind of time and his career, statistically, is better than me also but I like more playing against him because it demands more from the preparation, to try to win against his teams.
“When we were in Spain each match against Barcelona with Valencia is very exciting and very demanding for me also to prepare for this match.”
Arsenal have won just two of their last 12 encounters with Man City in all competitions.
After a modest playing career, which was spent mostly in Spain’s Segunda División, Emery transitioned into coaching after retiring in 2004. He began at Lorca Deportiva CF, where he achieved promotion into Segunda División in his first season, and was awarded the Miguel Muñoz Trophy.
He then departed to join intermittent La Liga club Almería, and his four years at the club was characterized by achieving promotion for the first time in the club’s history. This garnered him a move to league heavyweights Valencia, and regularly lead the team within the top three, but departed after developing untenable relationships with the club’s hierarchy. He then left Spain to coach Spartak Moscow for six months, before moving to Sevilla in 2013.
At Sevilla, Emery gained several plaudits for his style of football, and shrewdness in the transfer market alongside Monchi. He achieved an unprecedented three consecutive Europa League victories, which gained him a move to French club Paris Saint-Germain in 2016. Despite achieving limited European success at the club, he won Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue and Trophée des Champions in his first year. He won all four domestic trophies in his second season, including Ligue 1, Coupe de France, Coupe de la Ligue and Trophée des Champions. After the expiry of his contract, he moved to English side Arsenal in 2018.