If, as the saying goes, living well is the best revenge, then Unai Emery is certainly getting his own back on those he will always believe opened the trapdoor beneath him far too soon at Arsenal.
While his old club languish in the Premier League, his new team Villarreal set a new club record on Tuesday night and are in the Champions League places in LaLiga.
Villarreal should probably have beaten Athletic Bilbao. As it was their draw extended their unbeaten run to 19 games – the best in the club’s history – and it kept them above Barcelona in the top four.
Emery did his best to stay calm when he gave an interview to Sportsmail back in May, but there were times when his frustration got the better of him.
‘No one inside the club knew how to protect me. They would say: “Yeah, Unai, we’re with you” but to the fans and the dressing room, they weren’t able to do it,’ he said as he explained how he believed he’d been hung out to dry at the first sign that his reign was not going to be just one long succession of improvements.
He says his difficulties in mastering English was used as a stick to beat him with. ‘It’s like when I said “good ebening”, okay it should be "good evening", I needed to practice my accent so that it was more "good evening” than “good ebening".
‘But when I said “good ebening” after a good result it was just a joke, when we were losing it was a disgrace,’ he said.
Back in La Liga he’s speaking his own language again, not that that saves him from being teased.
The popular Monday night football highlights show El Dia Despues has a resident impressionist Raul Perez. Three weeks ago he turned his attention to Emery, wearing the club shop and waving his arms around like an air traffic controller.
But Emery was Perez’s target because everyone is talking about Villarreal, and everyone is talking about Villarreal because they are playing so well.
In his favour Emery has several players who he could have used at Arsenal. Left sided centre-back Pau Torres is the best in Spain and right-side forward Gerard Moreno is LaLiga’s top scorer. But elsewhere it’s a team of tidy, honest players, who are thriving because of the way Emery has them organised.
He is also working wonders with youth. The 20-year-old striker Fer Niño and 18-year-old forward Yeremi Pino are playing so well they are in the team ahead of the youngsters who were expected to shine this season Samu Chukwueze and Real Madrid loanee Take Kubo - who will probably go back Madrid in January because of a lack of minutes and because Villarreal need funds to replace long term injury Vicente Iborra.
Emery will take no pleasure in Arsenal’s start. And he will sympathise with Mikel Arteta. ‘He has the profile to coach Arsenal. And he has worked with [Pep] Guardiola for a few years,’ he said.
‘I think after my departure, he was the correct choice. There are changes necessary to, bit by bit, get Arsenal back in their rightful place and he has the qualities to do that.’
Two former Arsenal heavyweights spoke recently about the difficultly for those that follow Arsene Wenger and for Emery in particular because he was the first.
Nacho Monreal told Sportsmail: ‘The club was built around him [Wenger] and after so many years there were people who still loved him a lot. I think Unai did a good job in that first year.
'We reached the final of the Europa League, then we weren’t at the level we needed to be in the final. And then the second year maybe they didn’t give him the time he needed.’
And the former Arsenal super scout Francis Cagigao said: ‘Transitions are never easy. Arsene was and is a legend at Arsenal. Unai joined in a difficult transitional period. But we have to remember that we reached the Europa League final and missed out on Champions League qualification by one point.’
The challenge now for Emery is to make sure this promising season for Villarreal is strong to the finish. To get them into the Champions League this season would be the greatest way to drive home the point once more that he should have got his second season at the Emirates.