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Unai Emery
Unai Emery

Unai Emery's future at Arsenal: Speculation grows about Spaniard's job with Gunners bosses set to meet on Friday

By Press Association
Football
Fri November 29, 2019 · 5y ago

Unai Emery faces fresh speculation over his future as Arsenal manager after his side were beaten by Eintracht Frankfurt in front of a sparse Emirates Stadium crowd.

A 2-1 Europa League reverse means the Gunners are now winless in their last seven games, with Emery seemingly clinging to his job as other names continue to be linked with the post.

The Spaniard named a fairly strong side as he went in search of a much-needed win, recalling Granit Xhaka for his first appearance since being stripped of the captaincy for swearing at supporters, and naming Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in attack.

Aubameyang put Arsenal ahead only for Daichi Kamada to strike twice in nine second-half minutes, having scored only once in his last 27 appearances.

Officially, 49,419 tickets were sold but in truth it was the lowest attendance in the history of a stadium that opened in 2006.

With the sparse crowd unable to create any sort of meaningful atmosphere it was up to the Arsenal players to bring the game to life - and they failed to do so once again.

By the end, it was a crop of Frankfurt supporters - officially banned by UEFA for attending the game - who were being heard over the home fans, plenty of whom were airing their grievances towards Emery, calling for him to leave and unveiling printed posters criticising his approach.

He conceded his players were currently low on confidence but said he believed they were better than their current meagre form suggested.

"Now our moment is not good," Emery said.

"We need to win and we need to gain confidence. I think we are better than we are showing; everybody, the players, the coaches and me.

"Now we lost some confidence and we need to win. I can understand the criticism about the team, about me. We are not in a good moment and also as a coach, I had that moment also in my career."

Frankfurt offered very little, ending with four shots on target. Still, Emery felt his below-par side were unfortunate to lose.

"I think we deserved more," he said.

"We controlled the game in the first half, we scored one goal. In the second half we started the same, we needed to score a goal but we lost the control of the game after 15 minutes and they scored two goals.

"I think we improved in the first half and we improved also some things to make sure of our improvement and take the three points."

Despite the defeat, Arsenal are all but through to the Europa League knockout stages and would need to lose by five goals at Standard Liege next month to fail to qualify.

But, given the mounting pressure on Emery and his apparent inability to stop such a damaging run of results, it remains to be seen if the 48-year-old will be in charge when the round of 32 rolls around in February.

Arsenal 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt Opta stats

  • Arsenal have not won any of their last seven matches in all competitions (D5 L2) - they never went on as poor a run across 1,235 games under Arsène Wenger, last waiting this long for a win in February 1992 under George Graham (8 games).
  • Arsenal have led at any stage in five games during their current seven-match winless run, drawing four and losing one of those five games after going ahead.
  • Eintracht Frankfurt have defeated English opposition away from home in Europe for the first time since beating Burnley 2-1 in the Fairs Cup in April 1967.
  • Arsenal were unbeaten in their previous 46 matches in all competitions when leading at half-time before tonight (W40 D6) since losing 1-2 at Watford in October 2017.
  • Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 10 goals in 13 appearances against Eintracht Frankfurt in all competitions, more than he has against any other opponent in his professional club career.
  • Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has scored 31 goals and provided 9 assists in 44 appearances for Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
  • Bukayo Saka has assisted five goals in his nine starts for Arsenal in all competitions, three of which have come against Eintracht Frankfurt.
  • Daichi Kamada scored his second and third goals for Eintracht Frankfurt in all competitions, having netted just once in 27 appearances for the club prior to tonight.

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