Emery, Sarri facing similar challenges trying to overhaul culture at their new clubs

Unai Emery and Maurizio Sarri have both significant challenges at their new clubs this season. They meet at the Emirates on Saturday.

Arsenal and Chelsea have long existed at opposing ends of the soccer spectrum. One favored attacking, while the other was rather more conservative. One was restricted in the transfer market, while the other splashed the cash to reach the top of the game. One plays in red, the other in blue.

Now, however, more pulls Arsenal and Chelsea together than drives them apart. They find themselves in comparable situations, with new managers appointed in the summer to not just overhaul the team on the pitch, but the culture around the respective clubs.

Unai Emery and Maurizio Sarri were not typical Premier League managerial hires. Emery had been sacked by Paris Saint-Germain the season before, while Sarri had never before got his hands on a single piece of silverware despite success at Napoli. The two men were appointed on the basis of more than just their binary records, though.

They are sporting philosophers. Both are advocates of dynamic, modern soccer, although Sarri is more of a proponent of possession than Emery. The difference between the two coaches is similar to the one that separates Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp.

But unlike with Guardiola and Klopp, the Premier League pace-setters this season, Emery and Sarri are struggling to impose their methods and ideas on their new clubs. When the two men shake hands on the touchline at the Emirates Stadium this weekend they will surely do so with at least some empathy for the other.

Emery and Sarri both looked to have hit the ground running in the Premier League, with some even pondering whether Arsenal and Chelsea could be a part of this season’s title race. Since then, though, the two London rivals have suffered crises of identity. Emery and Sarri have more work to do than they perhaps anticipated.

“Sarri-ball” hasn’t quite been as thrilling as one may have anticipated. Napoli were exhilarating to watch under Sarri last season, but it seems the Italian lacks the players to replicate that at Stamford Bridge. For example, Chelsea have been using Eden Hazard as a false 9 since the start of December purely because Sarri doesn’t have faith in either Olivier Giroud or Alvaro Morata.

Antonio Conte left Chelsea partly in frustration over a lack of control over transfers. Sarri has a very particular idea of what he wants and needs in terms of personnel, so will the Blues bend to his demands in a way they didn’t for Conte? The impending signing of Gonzalo Higuain this month suggests they will. That will make a difference.

Emery is surely similarly concerned about a lack of boardroom support. Just this week it emerged that Sven Mislintat, the head of recruitment lured from Borussia Dortmund only a year ago, is set to leave the Emirates Stadium due to frustration over transfers. That doesn’t bode well, especially with Aaron Ramsey already set to depart on a free transfer at the end of the season and the saga concerning Mesut Ozil’s future still simmering away.

What’s more, things are also falling apart for the Gunners on the pitch, with Emery’s side winning just three of their last eight games in all competitions. It’s now a very real possibility that Arsenal will finish their first season in the post-Arsene Wenger age not just outside the top four, but in sixth place — where they finished last season.

Of course, it was always likely that such comprehensive overhauls would take time. Emery and Sarri aren’t just trying to assemble winning teams, but change the culture at their respective clubs. Time isn’t something readily afforded to Premier League managers, though. This weekend’s clash between Arsenal and Chelsea could be a pivotal moment in their respective seasons, and in the success or failure of their managers’ grand projects.