“Things Need To Improve” – Unai Emery Given Dreaded Vote Of Confidence By Club’s Hierarchy

Unai Emery has been given a vote of confidence by messers Sanllehi and Vinai, but expectations remain…

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery has received a vote of confidence from the club’s chiefs Raul Sanllehi and Vinai Venkatesham, although the pair expressed that they expect results to improve, Goal reports.

The message was said to have been communicated to 200 members of staff on Monday, and one wonders how their words have been leaked to the press.

It comes almost 24 hours after a David Ornstein exclusive via The Athletic in the which he reported that the club back Unai Emery wholeheartedly despite the negative “external atmosphere”.

That briefing enraged Arsenal fans on social media who felt that they were being blamed for the current plight while Emery was being shielded and being provided with excuses.

VAR, the departure of Laurent Koscielny, Granit Xhaka’s temper tantrum and the attempted robbery suffered by Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac have all been provided as reasons why we’ve struggled by the club’s PR department (via The Evening Standard).

However, the latest comments from Sanllehi and Vinai suggests that they aren’t as naive as those previous stories suggested and the two stopped short of stating that there will be no managerial change this season.

“We are as disappointed as everyone else with both our results and performances at this stage of the season,” they were quoted as saying.

 “We share the frustration with our fans, Unai, players and all our staff as they are not at the level we want or expect.

“Things need to improve to meet our objectives for the season, and we firmly believe Unai is the right man for the job, together with the backroom team we have in place. We are all working intensively behind the scenes to turn things around and are confident we will. 

“We never take our fantastic support for granted. We hope we can all stick together and get behind the team in this challenging period, as together we are stronger.”

The stats suggest that this isn’t a slight malaise and even during our 20-game unbeaten run last season, many felt Emery’s Arsenal’s relied too heavily on our striker’s efficiency.

Also, we faced way too many shots last term and as many have played closer attention to that particular statistic, that has continued this season.

Bernd Leno currently leads the way in terms of saves in the Premier League, a position usually reserved by a team fighting relegation. The five goalkeepers trailing him in the charts play for the following teams: Brighton, Bournemouth, Watford, Norwich Coty and Newcastle United.

This isn’t a case of a fanbase reaching to a kneejerk conclusion – we are bad. We don’t control games, we can’t defend, and we don’t create a number of chances. Something will have to give.