Arsenal boss under mounting pressure following draw with Southampton
Sunday 24 November 2019 07:25, UK
Unai Emery understands why Arsenal fans booed his team off following their 2-2 draw with Southampton as the pressure mounts on the Gunners boss.
Head coach Emery is under mounting pressure following a string of poor performances and a record of just two wins from Arsenal's last 11 Premier League games.
Emery has been given public backing by the Arsenal hierarchy but he was warned that results must improve.
The Spaniard conceded himself, in the aftermath of Arsenal's latest draw, that his team did not hit the levels required against Southampton and completely understands the frustrations of the fans.
"I understand how the supporters feel about the team and me," he told Sky Sports.
"I'm going to work hard for them to come back and put in a good performance where we use our quality to show we can be better. Today they [the fans] helped us but we didn't give them the feedback to show our capacity to battle."
Despite Southampton registering 21 shots on Arsenal's goal and missing some glorious chances in the closing stages to extend their 2-1 lead, Emery felt Arsenal played their best 20 minutes of the whole season just after half-time when Nicolas Pepe hit the crossbar.
He said: "My job is to analyse and find solutions. We need to recover confidence. One good result will give us that confidence to achieve that performance.
"The best 20 minutes of the whole season came at the start of the second half but they scored when we were better maybe.
"We draw at the last moment but it's not enough."
Sky Sports' Lewis Jones from The Emirates:
The Arsenal fans deserve better communication than they are getting from their under-pressure manager right now. In his post-match press conference he spoke of "finding solutions" in terms of the balance between attack and defence, but surely a manager with 18 months of experience in the hotseat shouldn't be pulling that excuse out of the bag? If Emery does have the answers, he's doing a good job at keeping them a secret.
Quite how he still doesn't know his best eleven is staggering.
This was another disjointed performance, especially defensively, against a team struggling for confidence themselves. Arsenal should have exploited that nervousness in the Southampton ranks but instead the opposite occurred as the visitors looked a team with a plan and how to execute it. Credit to Ralph Hasenhuttl for that - a manager that was nearly in tears at full-time.
Arsenal, on the other hand, lacked imagination and pattern to their play and were thankful to Lacazette's imperious finishing ability that they left with an undeserved point. The lack of celebrations from both the players and fans when the late equaliser went in told its own story.
Emery is now 7/2 second favourite in the sack race with Sky Bet. The ice beneath him is becoming thinner.
