Comparing Unai Emery’s PL record after 38 games at Aston Villa to Klopp, Guardiola, Arteta & more

Nestor Watach • 27 Nov 2023

Unai Emery has taken more points from his 38 games in charge of Aston Villa than Jurgen Klopp, Mikel Arteta and Erik ten Hag did with their starts at Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United respectively.

In fact, the Spanish coach has only done marginally worse over his first full season’s worth of games than Pep Guardiola did in his first year at the helm of Manchester City.

Aston Villa sat just above the relegation zone when Emery was appointed Steven Gerrard’s successor in November 2023. He did a brilliant job to dramatically turn their form around, eventually guiding them to qualification for the Europa Conference League – and they’ve got even better in 2023-24, sitting just two points off table-toppers Arsenal after 13 games.

“I’m very proud,” Emery responded after it was pointed out to him that Villa have set a new club record for Premier League wins in a calendar year.

“But I told the players, at Forest I was very proud of them and we lost and, of course, here I can tell them easier. The most important is how we are doing the way. How we are doing, being demanding, being focused.

“Yesterday (Saturday), we were preparing for the match on the pitch and I was really focusing with the players how difficult (game) we were facing today. I was explaining to the players yesterday because we analysed Tottenham deeply in the two weeks.

“Today, they were on the pitch, and they faced it. But they followed the gameplan we were preparing.”

Here’s a closer look at how Emery’s record over the course of his first 38 league games in charge of Aston Villa compares to his previous Premier League stint at Arsenal, as well as the starts made in the competition by Klopp, Guardiola, Arteta and Ten Hag.

Unai Emery (Aston Villa)

Wins: 24
Draws: 5
Losses: 9

Points: 77

Goals Scored: 71
Goals Conceded: 44
Clean Sheets: 11

Unai Emery (Arsenal)

Wins: 21
Draws: 7
Losses: 10

Points: 70

Goals Scored: 73
Goals Conceded: 51
Clean Sheets: 8

READ: The 5 kids handed Arsenal debuts by Unai Emery & how they’ve fared

Jurgen Klopp

Wins: 18
Draws: 11
Losses: 9

Points: 65

Goals Scored: 73
Goals Conceded: 50
Clean Sheets: 9

Pep Guardiola

Wins: 23
Draws: 9
Losses: 6

Points: 78

Goals Scored: 80
Goals Conceded: 39
Clean Sheets: 12

Pep Guardiola has won the league in 𝟏𝟏 of his 𝟏𝟒 seasons as a coach.

He was only stopped by José Mourinho (2011-12), Antonio Conte (2016-17) and Jürgen Klopp (2019-20). pic.twitter.com/SwePsp0HEI

— 433 (@433) May 20, 2023