Aston Villa boss Unai Emery branded the Premier League’s most overrated manager

Unai Emery is not a top manager and he has been ‘getting away with it’ during Aston Villa’s poor run of form.

That’s the view of talkSPORT’s Angelina Kelly, who has branded Emery the Premier League‘s most overrated coach in a brutal assessment of the Spaniard’s managerial career.

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Having been in the title race just weeks ago, a nightmare run of form and injuries to key players now sees Villa fighting for a top four finish.

On Wednesday night, Emery’s side were thumped 4-1 at home by rivals Chelsea, slumping to back-to-back defeats after a 2-0 loss to bottom club Wolves.

The damaging results mean Villa have won just once in their last six league games, who are now just three points clear of Liverpool and Chelsea in fifth and sixth place respectively.

With fifth likely to be the cut-off point for Champions League football, there are now concerns Villa could fail to qualify.

Kelly: Emery on ‘too high of a pedestal’

Villa’s poor form caught the eye of talkSPORT’s Kelly, who used it to support her football hot take on the latest episode of Fiery Fridays.

Joining Alex Crook and Adrian Durham on the talkSPORT podcast, the trio were asked for their most controversial football opinions, and Emery soon found himself in the firing line.

Giving her hot take, Kelly began: “Unai Emery is the most overrated manager currently in the Premier League.”

Since taking charge at Villa Park in 2022, Emery has never finished lower than seventh, as well as making the top four twice.

This has earned the Spanish coach huge praise, and has seen him linked with a number of big name jobs, namely the Manchester United vacancy, but Kelly wasn’t convinced by his credentials.

She continued: “Unai Emery is not a bad manager. He’s actually a good one, but for me, he’s put on much too high of a pedestal.

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“I think up until now, he’s done well overall with Aston Villa, getting them consistently into different levels of European football, finishing no lower than seventh, which I do applaud. 

“However, the fact that he’s been hailed as a man who would be worthy of one of the top jobs – he was linked to Manchester United not too long ago, I’m just not having it.”

‘Everyone gives him a free pass’

Emery previously spent two years in charge of Paris Saint-Germain, winning Ligue 1 in 2018, before being appointed Arsenal boss.

However, his spell in north London didn’t go according to plan, as he was sacked after just 18 months in the role with the Gunners enduring their worst run of form since 1992.

Kelly said: “I think when he was at Arsenal, who have far higher aims and expectations than Villa – no disrespect to them – he fumbled it, was sacked after their worst run of form for 27 years in 2019. 

“His successor [Mikel Arteta] is doing a much better job.”

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Continuing to question Emery’s credentials, she went on: “His record domestically isn’t amazing – apart from PSG, who let’s face it, are richer than the rest of the French league combined.

“He’s never won a domestic trophy, never really been in a title race outside of France, because I don’t think this season counts.

“I know that they’ve had injuries recently [Villa]. But earlier this season everyone thought he was a genius, they’d won 10 games in a row, were apparently in this title race.

“Recently they’ve dropped off, nobody’s had anything to say about it, he’s almost getting away with it. 

“Villa have won once in their last seven in all competitions – a last minute win against Brighton, lost to bottom club Wolves, destroyed at home by Chelsea, couldn’t beat Leeds, [they lost to] 10-man Brentford at home. 

“Everyone gives him a free pass, but not here on Fiery Fridays!”

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Emery’s biggest managerial achievement is his stunning Europa League record, winning the competition a record four times – three times with Sevilla, and once with Villareal in 2021.

This didn’t move Kelly from her stance though, who said: “It’s great that he won them, but it’s no indication for me that he’s an elite-level manager.”

Durham’s defence

Adrian Durham was quick to defend Emery, insisting that his spell at Arsenal was far from the failure it has been made out to be.

With the Gunners finishing eighth in Arteta’s first full season in charge, he stressed that Emery had been tasked with a diffiuclt job during a period of transition at the Emirates.

The talkSPORT presenter argued: “Saying that this guy now [Arteta] is making Unai Emery look bad is a massive rewriting of history.”

Despite this, Durham agreed with Kelly’s assessment that Emery is just short of being considered a world class manager.

He explained: “Now where I agree with you, Angelina, is that I’ve heard people say: ‘I love that Unai Emery. He really knows what [he’s doing]. He knows this, he knows that’.

“I don’t see the evidence that he’s actually elite.”