It wasn’t to be third time lucky for Unai Emery.

The Villarreal coach saw his side lose out to Chelsea in the final of the UEFA European Super Cup – now making it three times he has come out on the wrong side of this curtain-raiser.

Three times he has come in managing the nominally weaker team – the UEFA Europa League winners – and three times he has left with nothing.

This time it was against a strong Chelsea side, who made it a tough evening for the Yellow Submarine and their ex-Arsenal boss.

Emery’s previous two Super Cup finals saw him go down to Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid – 2-0 in 2014 – and a Lionel Messi-inspired Barcelona in 2015.

That latter tie in Tblisi ended up in a crazy score of 5-4 after Pedro had snatched the winner in extra-time.

As Arsenal coach, Emery had also lost to Chelsea in the final of the Europa League in 2019, and he suffered the same fate to the Blues this time.