ARSENAL fans were granted no reprieve from their dismay when Unai Emery’s side drew to Southampton and the team is reportedly disillusioned with the coach’s ability to turn around their season.
Only a late Alexandre Lacazette goal could earn the Gunners a point at home to Southampton on Saturday.
It was a fifth draw in six games, the remainder being an envious defeat at Leicester, to emphasise the apathy around Emirates Stadium ever since the downturn under Emery began at the start of the calendar year.
Sitting in eighth place after 13 games may not usually be terminal for a team like Arsenal’s season but they are eight points off the top-four – a gap that was only two points this time last month.
According to The Telegraph, the sour atmosphere in the stands is now present in the dressing room.
The Spaniard’s ability to communicate his instructions has long been under scrutiny but players are said to be confused by how he constantly changes his plans.
Saturday saw Arsenal again deployed in a 3-5-2 with two defensive-minded central midfielders but Southampton still managed 21 shots by pressing high up the pitch and moving the ball quickly.
Team selection is another bugbear, Mesut Ozil’s long absence from the side only recently brought to a begrudging end.
SEVERELY LAC-ING
The big picture is that the Gunners are looking very unlikely to reach next season’s Champions League.
Such a major loss of income for the fourth year in a row may turn Arsenal into a selling club with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette named as star names potentially having to leave.
The club’s contract talks with both strikers are being derailed by this downturn in form.
Together, they have 12 goals in the Premier League this term and, given that Nicolas Pepe is the only other attacker to have registered, it is fair to say they are carrying the team – Aubameyang in particular.
Without the Gabon forward’s goals alone, Emery would be managing a side ten points worse off and lodged in the relegation zone.
Often in the scenarios, the club weighs up whether sacking the manager is the price to pay to keep their stars and first-team assistant coach Freddie Ljungberg is seen as a likely interim boss if Emery goes.
Mikel Arteta, Julian Nagelsmann, Brendan Rodgers, Massimiliano Allegri, Patrick Vieira are names touted for the role long-term – as well as sacked Tottenham coach Mauricio Pochettino.
The growing consensus among pundits and former players is that a change is required.
Alan Shearer told Match of the Day: “I dont see [Emery] getting out of it because I dont see Arsenal improving. Theyre getting worse.”
That agrees with the narrative reported among the players, who don’t trust Emery to turn things around.
Chairman Sir Chips Keswick reportedly attempted to quit on the weekend to end his 14-year spell in north London, turned towards the exit door by the fans’ fury.
Shearer continued: “These are mistakes from defenders that are happening every single week from trying to play out from the back. They are not good enough to play out from the back, Arsenal. They keep giving chances away.”
Tony Adams, a Prem-winning captain with the Gunners, told BT Sport: “The boos are deserved – it was a terrible, terrible performance, very disjointed, no defending in sight.
“That’s a really poor performance and I don’t want any coach losing his job, but the club’s not going forward, it’s not progressing.”
Former winger and academy coach Robert Pires, meanwhile, has stuck his neck out to say that Emery “will make a success with Arsenal”.
