Unai Emery got his Arsenal career off to the worst possible start after his side lost 2-0 to Manchester City at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

In truth, it was always going to be an uphill task facing the reigning Premier League champions.

Raheem Sterling gave the visitors the lead after just 14 minutes, before Bernardo Silva doubled Man City's advantage just after the hour mark.

Arsenal were able to get the ball in dangerous positions as full-time approached, but they were unable to find a way past Ederson.

Unfortunately, it does not get any easier for Emery's side. Their next Premier League game will be against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge next Saturday.

It wasn't the dream start that both Arsenal fans and Emery would have hoped for. 

Gary Neville sent a message after the game to those expecting instant success, claiming that it will take Emery three or four transfer windows to make an impact due to their poor recruitment in the past few years.

"He has to have four transfer windows to make this team his. It’s not Chelsea here, by the way," Neville told Sky Sports, per the Metro.

"I don’t think this is short term, the recruitment has been so bad there over this last three or four years.

"It’s going to take basically two or three, four transfer windows to sort this out. This is a great coach, Unai Emery, he needs three or four transfer windows.

"I don’t care who the coach would be – you could bring Pep Guardiola in here. It took Pep Guardiola three transfer windows at City, the first one in the summer, the January and then the summer after.

"Pep Guardiola, the greatest coach in the world with the biggest budget, it’s going to take him [Emery] more than that."

Spot on, Gary. This is not going to be an easy fix for Arsenal.

The players at Emery's disposal are no where near the calibre needed to win a title.

Emery would have to be a miracle worker to transform this side into title challengers after just one transfer window.

As Neville says, Emery is a proven coach who has enjoyed success in both Spain and France.

But it will take some time in order to transform this Arsenal side into title contenders once more.

Emery believes that he Arsenal must continue to work on their defence to close the gap to Man City.

“We were improving during the 90 minutes like I think we need for next week and the next match,” he insisted, per Goal.

“We need to continue to work tactically with defensive options to shorten the difference between Manchester City and ourselves.

“Manchester City demanded our best performance and we saw that we have to continue working. But I’m happy with the players because they ran and they fought.”