Robert Pires: I’m Backing Unai Emery To Deliver Top Four Finish And Win Europa League

Arsenal legend Robert Pires believes the task is clear for Unai Emery until the end of the season…

Arsenal hero Robert Pires has backed Unai Emery to deliver a top-four finish as well as claim a fourth Europa League title and drive us all the way to Baku, ESPN reports.

Pires claimed that after a tricky period, the path is clear for Emery and he knows what he has to achieve in order for this campaign to be deemed a successful one.

We currently sit in fourth place, one point behind third-place Spurs and with eight games to go, the target of Champions League football is in our hands.

All of our top-six rivals still have to play each other a few times, while our top-of-the-table clashes are behind us.

However, given our wretched away record, playing five of the remaining eight games on the road will level out the playing field in terms of who’s favourite to clinch a top-four slot.

For Pires, though, this isn’t a time for Emery to pick between two competitions with the Frenchman backing the boss to deliver on both fronts.

“Unai Emery is a good manager, he’s won some titles with Sevilla, with Paris Saint-Germain,” Pires said.

“For the end of the season, he has two targets: to reach the top-four and – why not – to win the Europa League.

“Arsenal are in a very good way and that’s why I’m very confident and very positive. I think they can reach both targets.”

Pires was speaking at the launch of this summer’s International Champions Cup where we’ll face Bayern Munich, AS Roma and Real Madrid in the United States as part of our pre-season preparations.

Those games will set the mood for the new campaign, but it’s how we end the current one which will shape our immediate future.