Arsenal’s under-fire Emery gets club’s public backing

LONDON (Reuters) – Arsenal manager Unai Emery has been given the club’s public backing but the Premier League side’s hierarchy has warned the Spaniard that results must improve, the BBC reported on Monday.

Emery’s position is under the spotlight after two wins in Arsenal’s last 10 league games with the latest setback coming in a 2-0 defeat at high-flying Leicester City on Saturday.

However, the sixth-placed London club’s head of football Raul Sanllehi and managing director Vinai Venkatesham have no immediate plans to make a change of manager.

“We firmly believe Unai is the right man for the job,” the BBC reported them as telling more than 200 staff from across the club at a pre-planned meeting on Monday.

“We are as disappointed as everyone else with both our results and performances at this stage of the season.

“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.”

“We are all working intensively behind the scenes to turn things around and are confident we will.”

Emery, 48, was appointed as Arsene Wenger’s successor in May 2018 and his first season ended with a 4-1 Europa League final loss to Chelsea, having missed out on the top four by a point.

The currently have 17 points from 12 games and are eight points adrift of the Champions League places.