Why did Unai Emery refuse to shake hands with Arsenal after Aston Villa’s 15th successive home win?

Aston Villa have become one of the best teams in the Premier League, quietly rising up the ranks of the table. Much of their success is due to manager Unai Emery, who has brilliantly transformed them in a few months. He did it with limited resources, without many transfers and with many players from the previous squad.

After going unnoticed for a while, they have now made everyone else aware of them and the danger they pose to the rest of the teams. And they have already beat some big teams in recent matches.

Unai Emery opens up on post-game handshake snub

Yesterday, Unai Emery led his team to a remarkable 1-0 win over league leaders Arsenal. It was captain John McGinn who scored the only goal for his team. It was a great win for Emery, his first against Arsenal, especially considering that they were his previous employers.

Their time together was not so fruitful and ended with the Spaniard getting sacked. Since then Arsenal have not found much success with his replacement, Mikel Arteta, losing out on the Premier League title last season, while Emery won the Europa League with Villarreal.

However, it was later revealed after the match that Emery did not shake hands with any staff members of Arsenal after the game. While they have a bad history and the game was heated, many wondered why he would do something like that. After all, the Spaniard is considered a very gentlemanly manager.

Later, he spoke in his post game press conference, admitting that he did shake hands with some of them. “No because Arteta wasn’t in the bench, I gave my hand to the workers inside, but only with the people I coached with and who worked with me.”

“There was nothing personal. I respect a lot Arsenal and Arteta. I have nothing negative against them.”

Aston Villa’s remarkable home streak

Aston Villa have been creating some pretty good records lately. They have beaten both Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in back to back matches. Unai Emery’s team completely dominated the former, with Pep admitting the superiority of his opponents.

Meanwhile Aston Villa have completely dominated at Villa Park this season. They have now seen 15 consecutive wins at home in the Premier League, a very uncommon record. In the history of the competition, this has been only the fifth ever instance of this. It means that they have made their stadium a fortress that is terrifying for opposition teams. Goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez is even confident that they can challenge for the title itself.

Aston Villa are now third in the league tables, only 2 points behind leaders Liverpool and 1 behind Arsenal. Unai Emery and the team will now concentrate on their Europa Conference League campaign, with a game against Zrinjski on Thursday.