Highlights

• Aston Villa manager Unai Emery spent 18 months at Arsenal as their manager, making 12 signings during his tenure, with each player having a mixed impact while at the club.
• Some of Emery's recruits, like Gabriel Martinelli, are still at Arsenal today, and have been huge hits with supporters.
• Other incomings, such as Nicolas Pepe and David Luiz, failed to make much of an impact during their time in north London, and are now playing for different clubs across the world.

Once upon a time, current Aston Villa chief Unai Emery was at the helm at Arsenal, though given how well he is performing at Villa Park, his relatively torrid time in north London is often overlooked. This weekend in the Premier League, Emery will welcome his former team to the Midlands in an all-intense contest with his side vying for European football two campaigns on the bounce.

As a result of his departure, the Arsenal fanbase were celebrating a changing of the guard, but also carrying out an autopsy on what went so badly wrong for Emery while in the hotseat. The Spanish tactician was given a really tough transfer budget to work with during his first transfer window and that strangely produced some of his finest moves in Matteo Guendouzi, Bernd Leno and Lucas Torreira.

However, the heavy-handed purchases of Nicolas Pepe and David Luiz have tarnished his spending habits considerably, as well as half-baked loan moves for Denis Suarez and Dani Ceballos. There are so many avenues of investigation you could take when delving deeper into his Arsenal exit, yet we've decided to focus on the 12 first-team transfers that Emery instigated during his time in charge.

Considering Wenger latterly signed Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, he had a tough act to follow, and GIVEMESPORT ranked the 12 signings based on just how successful they were for Arsenal. There have been a real mixed bag, that's for sure. Without further ado, let’s jump in.

1 William Saliba

54 appearances, 4 goals, 2 assists (as of 08/12/23)

Let’s start off with a bang, shall we? It says a lot about Arsenal’s transfer business under Emery’s reign that a player who has made just 54 appearances for them is taking the gold medal. Still just the tender age of 22, William Saliba has emerged as one of the Premier League’s hottest prospects and is poised to become an Arsenal legend.

The Frenchman enjoyed an impressive loan stint with Saint-Ettiene and returned to England ready and raring to go, with all the tools that have seen him become one of the club’s finest assets, much to the enjoyment of Mikel Arteta and his entourage. It was Emery, however, who brought the centre-back to the club in the first place.

2 Gabriel Martinelli

148 appearances, 37 goals, 22 assists (as of 08/12/23)

You know you're a gifted footballer when Jürgen Klopp says this about you:

"He’s a talent of the century, he’s an incredible striker."

And considering the 22-year-old spends his weekends leaving full-backs in the dust, you’d be inclined to agree with the Liverpool custodian. Across his 148-game Arsenal career, he has racked up 59 goal contributions (37G, 22A) and will continue to add more as the days, weeks, months and even years go by.

An electric winger capable of taking his man wide or cutting inside with a moment of genius, you can see why people think Arsenal have got their hands on a future world-beater. His quality was on full show with a dazzling display in the Gunners’ Champions League clash with Sevilla, and that won't be the last time we see Gabriel Martinelli at his scintillating best.

3 Kieran Tierney

124 appearances, 8 goals, 37 assists

It's hard to place Kieran Tierney considering the tough competition on offer (Saliba and Martinelli), but Emery can be praised for making a shrewd purchase here for £25 million. While he never became a standout star like the aforementioned duo, the club simply got what they paid for.

A 124-game career in north London came to an end when he switched rainy London for sunny Spain in the summer, moving on loan to Real Sociedad after he slipped even further down the pecking order upon the arrival of Jurrien Timber. His chances of regular football seemed to go out the window after being a seasoned asset for both Emery and Arteta, and it's reportedly unlikely that he will ever play for the club again.

4 Bernd Leno

125 appearances, 378 goals conceded, 100 clean sheets

Despite a smattering of mistakes in his first season between the posts for Arsenal, there can be no denying that Bernd Leno was a worthy successor for the legendary Petr Cech. For a club who have really struggled for goalkeepers in the last decade, the German settled into life in the Premier League with ease.

He, however, found himself out of favour when Aaron Ramsdale arrived in 2021 and, as such, left for Fulham for a measly fee of £3 million. Now 31 and a fully-fledged member of the Craven Cottage set-up, the nine-cap international has, albeit quietly, re-established himself as one of the league’s top shot-stoppers.

5 Lucas Torreira

89 appearances, 4 goals, 6 assists

When Lucas Torreira scored in the North London Derby, it looked as though Arsenal had struck gold with the young and hungry Uruguayan, though he left much to the imagination by the time he upped and left in 2021 for Fiorentina. Things had petered out a little bit for Torreira ever since his goal against Tottenham Hotspur and while many thought he was the sort of midfielder that could be invaluable for Arsenal in seasons to come, his persistently below-par performances spoke volumes of Emery’s bad recruitment.

Torreira featured for the Gunners 89 times across his stay but only managed to plunder 10 goal-involvements in the form of four goals and six assists. It’s not unfair to say his £26.5m move can be filed under ‘transfers to forget’.

6 Dani Ceballos

77 appearances, 2 goals, 5 assists

Promise is the key word once again because Dani Ceballos was playing some fantastic football during his first few Arsenal outings. However, the memories of his positive embryonic impressions quickly faded with time and his return of zero goals and three assists from 37 outings is unfathomably bad.

The Real Madrid man did very little to attract Zinedine Zidane's attention upon his return to the Spanish powerhouse and has become an eternal substitute for Los Blancos ever since. Capped by Spain on 13 different occasions, Ceballos did look top drawer at some points across his Arsenal stint but never reached the heights he was destined to smash through. A bit of a shame really.

7 Nicolas Pepe

112 appearances, 27 goals, 21 assists

When clubs spend a mouth-watering amount of money on a new forward signing, as Arsenal did with Nicolas Pepe, they expect the crème de la crème. Goals, excitement and, most importantly, value for their outlay. Arsenal didn’t quite get that with the Ivorian, who – at the time – was one of the most sought-after assets on the market, with him notching just 27 goals and 21 assists in 112 outings.

Not a bad return, admittedly, but you’d expect more bang for your buck when spending a then-club record fee of £72 million. Now regarded as one of the club's biggest flops, he knew his time had come when fan favourite Bukayo Saka arrived on the scene, and now earns his corn at Trabzonspor in the Turkish Süper Lig. Oh Nicolas, what could have been?

8 David Luiz

73 appearances, 4 goals, 1 assist

A move so nonsensical that you wonder whether Emery knew something we didn't. He didn't. David Luiz was the same erratic and inconsistent defender he was at Chelsea, conceding two penalties during his first four Premier League games and keeping just one league clean sheet. Need we say more?

The charismatic Brazilian racked up a whopping 248 games while in west London but managed to just miss out on the 75-game mark in his stint across the capital with the Gunners and left without making his mark. No doubt that he often pulled a miraculous display out of his locker, but his unwavering incontinency weighed him down.

9 Matteo Guendouzi

82 appearances, 1 goal, 5 assists

What a talent this young man was. The problem? His attitude. Matteo Guendouzi, who made 82 appearances at the capital club, could’ve flown up this ranking if it wasn’t for the Brighton & Hove Albion controversy. Struggles to re-integrate himself into the squad followed, which led to a 2020/21 loan to Hertha Berlin in Germany.

The Frenchman might have only scored once, but his penetrating runs forward did get Arsenal fans on their feet, and they had reason to believe they were on their way to a winner. Still just 24 years old, Guendouzi has featured for France seven times and the midfield enforcer seems to be enjoying life in Serie A at Lazio.

10 Sokratis Papastathopoulos

69 appearances, 4 goals, 2 assists

Although he looked incredibly sturdy during Arsenal's nine-game unbeaten run at the start of Emery's reign, the former Borussia Dortmund ace had a stint to forget in England. Arsenal were craving someone a lot more consistent in the long term and Sokratis Papastathopoulos looked suspect against some of England's stronger sides.

By the time he parted ways with his teammates, his course looked to have been run. 69 appearances, six goals and two assists later, and the veteran Greece international moved to his native country to join Olympiacos, though did enjoy a two-year hiatus from football before joining Real Betis in October.

11 Stephan Lichtsteiner

23 appearances, 1 goal, 1 assist

Many fans of an Emirates Stadium persuasion have decided to forget about this one. Signing an experienced winner in Stephan Lichtsteiner looked to be a wise move after Wenger's departure, but this was another misguided buy under the new-look Emery regime.

The then-35-year-old was more of a liability than an asset thanks to his flailing legs and the only real positive to take from the former Juventus star’s 23 appearances is that the Gunners didn't pay a penny in transfer fees. The fact that the well-informed 108-cap Switzerland international only racked up a measly number of appearances for the Premier League outfit shows this one, in hindsight, was a poor mistake.

12 Denis Suarez

6 appearances, 0 goals, 0 assists

The less said about Denis Suarez’s move to Arsenal, the better. What is there even to say about his time at Arsenal? Securing him on loan from Barcelona looked to be a serious coup in January 2019 with all the clamour around his name, but his six games in England were near sleep-inducing.

The Spain international, who has been capped on the solitary occasion, is now plying his trade for Villarreal but can certainly be considered an ill-judged coup during Emery’s reign. The club should’ve seen his sub-par debut against Manchester City as a sign of things to come and cut ties with immediate effect.