Unai Emery's record for post-match controversy hit a new peak leaving Arsenal with questions over Mikel Arteta narrative

Unai Emery created headlines after his Aston Villa side threw away a two-goal lead in injury time at Old Trafford. Manchester United scored twice in the 92nd and 96th minutes, with the latter prompting Emery to storm down the touchline and into the dressing room before the game had officially finished.

It had been suggested Emery had failed to shake hands with Michael Carrick; however, others have claimed there were some quick formalities with Carrick before he left the field. But had he not, it would have continued a run of behaviour well-establish by Emery.

In February of this year, Emery failed to shake hands with Rob Edwards, the then Wolves manager, after a 2-0 defeat. Emery’s explanation was that the “match was finished” while Edwards joked: “Not yet, I get it. The two games we won, both managers had disappeared.

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“They probably think they can turn up and win given how the season has gone! I've got a lot of respect for Unai; I think he’s brilliant, so it’s fine.”

Facing his old club Arsenal, Emery failed to shake hands with Mikel Arteta after losing 4-1 in December 2025, and said after the game: "After the match, always my routine is quick - shake hands and go with my coaches, with my players, or go to the dressing room. And I was waiting, and waiting.

"Of course, he was happy, and he was with his coaches, and I decided to go inside. But for me, it's not a problem."

Videos, however, shared on social media by fans of the coverage showed Emery simply walking immediately down the tunnel and didn’t wait for Arteta. In 2023, the pair were unable to shake hands as Arteta was suspended for the game at Villa Park.

However, against Gary O’Neil, who was another Wolves head coach at the time, in October 2023, when the sides drew 1-1, Emery again failed to shake hands with his opposite number. Emery said: “I was waiting to tell him ‘congratulations’ and I gave my hand, and he was speaking with the assistant referee. I left, simply.”

Explaining his actions, O'Neil said: “My conversation with the fourth official was about eight seconds long, so he wouldn’t have had to wait very long. But I understand if he doesn’t want to, no problem. I’ve got no problem with Unai at all.”

The first known incident, however, occurred in August 2018 with Emery as Arsenal manager. Losing to Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea, Emery walked down the tunnel after the game and, when quizzed post-match on the lack of a handshake, he said: “No, I waited in the dressing room to give him the hand, no problem.”

The relevance in the discussion surrounding manager behaviours is that Arteta has come under major scrutiny in recent years. Be that his frustration with decisions, leaving his technical area during games or even supposed issues with how Arsenal win matches.

And one of the most ironic things: a 2025 report by BBC Sport sent reporters to all ten matches on the weekend of April 5 and discovered Unai Emery spent 63% of the game outside of his technical area, the second highest on that weekend; Arteta was fourth but far lower at 40%.

It leaves the question: if Arteta did what Emery did at Old Trafford, or failed to shake hands with other managers in the eyes of the cameras, as is the unwritten respect protocol at games, as Emery has so persistently and then also answered questions as Emery did post-match with Sky Sports, the reaction, I wager, would have been far more public, vitriolic and wide-reaching. Wouldn’t it?