Unai Emery is determined to fight on as the Arsenal manager despite a defeat by Eintracht Frankfurt that leaves him on thin ice.
Arsenal have gone seven games without a win and the club’s hierarchy, although reluctant to make a change, are now considering their options. A second-half collapse against the Bundesliga side, who had hardly threatened before the break, did nothing for the manager’s cause and the team were booed off by a sparse crowd at full-time.
Emery has no issue with the fans’ discontent but feels he and his players are capable of turning things around. “I can understand all the criticism about the team, about me,” he said when asked if he had made mistakes during his 18-month tenure. “We are not in a good moment.”
Emery refused to accept he has taken Arsenal as far as he can and praised the performance of his side, who created enough chances to have won the game before Daichi Kamada struck twice for Eintracht. “We need to win and to gain confidence,” he said. “I think we are better than we are showing: the players, the coaches and me. Now we lost some confidence and need to win. But really the response from the players in the first half was good.”
On the topic of persistent speculation over his job, Emery preferred to focus on the improvement Arsenal showed in that first half. Arsenal travel to Norwich on Sunday and, if Emery is still in charge, he will look to rally a despondent dressing room and replicate that showing at Carrow Road.
“I am thinking of how we can improve better, how we can achieve that confidence with the players,” he said. “Also the players now are a little down in their feelings. But if we continue and can achieve the performance of the first half, that is the way.”
Emery admitted that ultimately the better performance was “not enough” while emphasising this was Arsenal’s first home defeat of the season, although their three previous results at the Emirates had brought draws against traditionally inferior opponents.
“My work and my job is my first analysis, and then to prepare for the match on Sunday,” he concluded. The Arsenal board’s next move will presumably determine whether he has the chance.
