Richard Buxton: Is Emery Arsenal’s Antichrist or anti-Allardyce?
Emery is more like Guardiola - which means ruthless culling of players detrimental to his methods should be expected
Henrikh Mkhitaryan has lived through both football's heaven and hell.
A commitment to archaism saw the Armenian reduced to a wing and a prayer at Manchester United while Borussia Dortmund allowed him to kiss the sky.
Choosing between a repeat of playing under Jose Mourinho or Juergen Klopp's respective brands of football is a no-brainer.
Mkhitaryan sees zero merits in kicking the ball downfield and simply "wait for God to give us a chance to score"; 18 months of toiling at Old Trafford taught him that harshest of lessons.
Knowing a thing or two about the game's subtleties is exactly why he has launched an impassioned defence of Unai Emery's slow pursuit of perfection with Arsenal.
After little more than six weeks at the helm, Emery's crash course in the English Premier League has begun in earnest.
The circling is well and truly underway, except it is footballing dinosaurs - rather than vultures - already rounding on Arsene Wenger's successor.
Successive defeats marked the worst start to the Gunners' new season for over 25 years and have given free rein to a premature declaration of open season from some quarters.
That prehistoric cabal of criticism is being led by Sam Allardyce, who attacked Emery for having the temerity to implement a style of play which extends beyond hoof-ball tactics.
Others, including Allardyce's former acolyte Gary O'Neil, have triedto join in the fun.
Emery can at least console himself with the fact that most of the game has seen through Allardyce's personal equivalence of Brexit; an irrational fear of continental influences based on misconceptions while offering only dated ideals and empty slogans as its viable alternative.
He is not alone in being seized upon by the one-time England boss, who has also placed the incumbents at his former EPL clubs Everton, Newcastle United and West Ham United in the firing line.
The Spaniard also remains no stranger to his methods being questioned after suffering two defeats.
It happened in the first seven games of his Paris Saint-Germain tenure.
Ultimately, that led to compromising his principles in order to stave off a potential dressing room uprising.
Had he yearned for a repeat of those two years in the French capital that saw him win a Ligue 1 title amid seven major honours, Chelsea would have been a more logical destination.
Losing to Arsenal's London rivals last weekend highlighted the task currently ahead of Emery.
Cutting adrift players detrimental to his methods will become a familiar process in the weeks and months ahead.
In the interim, that means Petr Cech at least. Longer term, Mesut Oezil, Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey risk finding themselves as the more high-profile casualties.
Emery's inspiration for such a ruthless policy on personnel is well-founded, having seen Pep Guardiola enact a similar approach when taking the reins at Barcelona exactly a decade ago.
Manchester City's manager parted ways with Ronaldinho and Deco, two of the Nou Camp's luxury players, in order to place his own stamp on the eventual Spanish champions.
Doubts existed over Guardiola's pedigree, too, after Barca failed to win their opening games.
Like Guardiola, Emery's current methods may appear flawed but, given time, will improve.
He is by no means a tactical Antichrist, just another, much-needed anti-Allardyce.
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