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Arsenal manager Unai Emery is watching Peaky Blinders to improve his English

Arsenal manager Unai Emery is watching Peaky Blinders to help improve his English.

The Spaniard has thrown himself head first into his studies since moving to England in the summer and those that know him well have been thoroughly impressed by how quickly he has grasped the language.

How much credit for that should go to Tommy Shelby and his family of gangsters is not clear but Emery may soon start coming out with colloquialisms from the 1920s-set, Birmingham-based series.

Asked whether he would prefer to watch football or a television series in a free evening Emery said, jokingly: “I am watching English series to improve my English. Peaky Blinders!

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“It’s good, but it’s difficult. It’s from Birmingham… and it’s very aggressive.”

Unlike his predecessor, Arsene Wenger, Emery has not shown a particular desire to be drawn on topics beyond football in the early days of his Arsenal reign, though he is speaking with growing confidence over matters on the pitch.

When it was put to him that he might share an “obsession” with football - Sunday's opponent Eddie Howe admitted to having such - Emery said: I don’t know if it’s an obsession but, in each profession, you need to feel passion for it, to give this profession your best performance.

"I don’t think of it as my work, it’s my best hobby. I feel a very big passion, I’m doing my work with desire.”