But you did not have to read too far between the lines to detect Emery’s regret that he had not been able to impose more of his own personality on the job. His kid-gloves handling of Neymar had brought neither success nor respect. Instead the critics dismissed him as weak. He sounded like a man who had decided that, wherever he ended up next, he would not fail again in the same way.

When Arsenal sacked Arsène Wenger at the end of last season they lost the leader who had defined the club for 22 years. The role is now up for grabs.

Technically gifted

The last major decision Arsenal took during Wenger’s time at the club was to give Mesut Özil a new contract worth £15 million a year until 2021 – a decision Wenger is said to have opposed, but which the club took anyway because they didn’t want a repeat of the Alexis Sanchez departure to Manchester United.

The new contract made Özil the best-paid player at the club, and as he was already arguably the most technically gifted player, he was solidly in contention to be Arsenal’s Neymar. He may even have assumed that this was his new status.

Özil’s problem is that Emery will be damned if he lets another star player dictate the terms at the new Arsenal. If Emery is going to succeed there it will be because he has convinced his players to believe in his way of doing things. And his way is quite different from what they have been used to.

Wenger believed that football was an art form that was primarily about self-expression. Emery has a more old-fashioned sort of idea: football is competition and the most important thing in competition is resistance to pain.

As he told Perarnau: “Being competitive is to know how to suffer. Suffer like Simeone’s team do to win. Suffer like Pep’s does to win in England.”

And suffering is a long way from Özil’s idea of what the game is all about.

A 5-1 defeat at Anfield is a setback for Emery. In mitigation, Arsenal fans are used to losing heavily at Liverpool. Last season they lost there 4-0 and it’s less than five years since their last 5-1 defeat at the same ground.

The Liverpool and Arsenal teams are both almost unrecognisable from that day in February 2014. Only a few starting players from that match remain at the same clubs: for Liverpool: Jordan Henderson, Daniel Sturridge and Simon Mignolet, for Arsenal: Laurent Koscielny, Nacho Monreal and Mesut Özil.

Liverpool’s manager at the time, Brendan Rodgers, would later describe his tactics for the match in a video for The Coaches’ Voice. In a nutshell, Liverpool’s game plan was to wait until Özil dropped into midfield to receive the ball, then press him, win possession, and set Sterling and Sturridge flying through the centre past Arsenal’s slow defenders. As Rodgers was happy to explain in what was billed as a tactical “Masterclass”, it worked a treat.

So even five years ago, when Özil was 25 and presumably as full of running as at any point in his career, Arsenal’s opponents were already targeting him as a weak link. Nothing has happened since then to make you believe he has addressed the shortcomings that Rodgers tried to exploit that day.

Long-term weakness

Since Özil arrived in the Premier League in 2013, no player has assisted more league goals or created more chances. Many would argue that such a record speaks for itself; how can a creator like this not make the starting team? These voices become louder every time Özil doesn’t play and Arsenal don’t win.