Emery sack talk ‘wrong’

SUNDAY’S victory over Brighton was a great win for Manchester United but the statistics showed that the next steps for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team are crucial.

The fact Brighton had significantly more possession than their hosts tells you that, while United have undoubted talent with which they can hurt you, against better teams their lack of ball retention will come back to bite them.

It was a solid result but, in modern football, United have to learn that possession is nine10ths of the law.

I FEAR Unai Emery’s accent could end up getting him the sack at Arsenal rather than his ability to manage a football club.

When broadcasters and pundits start mocking a manager’s dialect he quickly becomes less a person and more a cartoon character.

Sneering at someone for the way they speak is the last refuge of the scoundrel but it’s hardly a surprise such things happen when piling into foreigners is par for the course with many at the moment.

Emery (left), a man taking on Arsene Wenger’s soft-touch, soft-centred Gunners, is managing a team which is where it should be in the table and yet still people are going for him.

The Gunners are now going through the same process Man Utd went through in the immediate aftermath of Sir Alex Ferguson.

And as I said then, ‘Welcome to mortality’, which for United was top four instead of ruling the roost and for Arsenal probably means just top six.

AFTER a draw and two wins on the bounce at the end of September and early October, it seemed like a little bit of, ‘We’ve arrived’ had crept in at Aston Villa.

The reality is, though, that we’ve got a big Brazilian striker who isn’t scoring and we’re conceding too many goals, especially in the second half of games.

Now this team needs to be more pragmatic and to keep clean sheets, otherwise our open, attacking philosophy will be flushed down the toilet back into the Championship in double quick time.

It’s time to wake up, the Villa, before the busy winter period starts.