Unai Emery has highlighted eight Arsenal players who he feels could threaten his Villarreal side ahead of their Europa League semi final clash on Thursday.
The Spaniard spent a season and a half as Gunners boss and guided them to the final of this competition in 2019 where they lost to Chelsea.
However, things unravelled pretty quickly after that and Emery was sacked in November of that year after a two match winless run.
Much of the squad that were there during the 49-year-old's time in charge at the Emirates are still there today and speaking ahead of Thursday night's reunion he outlined the players he would be warning his current Villarreal side about the most.
"Well as for the game plan I'm sure Arteta will have given them a personal touch. This is what I tried to do," he told press ahead of the clash.
"It’s a very recognisable Arsenal. They have a very marked identity and they show a lot of progress with Arteta.
"From that point onwards they have top quality players - Ceballos, Odegaard, Saka - quick players - Aubameyang, Bukayo, Martinelli. They have very quick players on the side like Bellerin.
"But they have a very solid defensive structure, they can do a passing structure. It’s going to be a very tough match. A very demanding team Arsenal. They’re going to be very demanding in terms of positional game.
"We need to play our passing game ourselves. The minute you let them run they have very speedy players like Pepe with plenty of space.
"They have lots of individual arguments where they can make a cocktail. We have to be very aware of players like Aubameyang and Lacazette, but they have many different types of players, many different game plans and many ways to execute their game plan on the pitch and we need to be ready for that.
"We will of course wait for our moments and try and play our game properly."
Emery is the most successful manager in history of the Europa League having won it three times in consecutive seasons with Sevilla between 2014 and 2016.
However, with European qualification via the Premier League now looking impossible Arsenal will need to overcome their former manager to have any chance of playing on the continent next season.
