Unai Emery has been relieved of his position in charge of Arsenal after 18 months, and part of the myriad of reasons his position became untenable may have been the absence of Hector Bellerin, with Arsenal’s right-back having been unavailable for almost the entirety of his former manager’s time in charge.
The Spaniard sustained a calf strain four months into Emery’s tenure, then just ten days later ruptured his cruciate ligament. In total, he’s missed 38 games because of those two injuries, the length of a Premier League season. During his layoff he has been deputised by Ainsley Maitland-Niles who made 26 appearances, and while some of those were encouraging, his performances were not as highly rated as Bellerin’s.
Going forward, prior to his injury, Bellerin had been on an excellent run, registering five assists in 19 appearances and averaging almost a shot a game. But he was still able to maraud the channel and aid with defending, with an 80% Premier League tackle success rate. Arsenal lost just four games with the Spaniard in the side and collected 37 points.
The Gunners’ record with Maitland-Niles in defence, however, was not quite so successful. In three fewer games the side suffered double the number of defeats, accumulating 22 points in the process. Alongside amassing fewer points, the Englishman had fewer clearances, recoveries and blocked shots, suggesting that although he is a capable contributing travelling forwards up the pitch, he is not best suited to defending.
Emery’s decision to move Maitland-Niles to right-back did not go as planned as Arsenal’s defeats soared. Although Bellerin could have done nothing about either of the injuries he sustained, it left the manager with a predicament he could have done without as results turned on the pitch.
The poor run culminated in Thursday’s 2-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, meaning Arsenal had not won any of their previous seven matches, accumulating five defeats and two draws, for which Emery was sacked without having been in charge for two full seasons.
Further headaches for Emery had come more recently when fans called for Bellerin to be given the captains armband after Granit Xhaka’s outburst. The manager eventually decided to award the captaincy to Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, with the sticking point for the right-back likely to have been his injury record. Ultimately after an impressive start under Emery, Bellerin has inadvertently caused the manager more headaches than he has solved, possibly contributing to the demise of his fellow Spaniard.
