Arsenal and Unai Emery: Rightly or wrongly, patience will reign

Arsenal head coach Unai Emery is under increasing pressure to justify his job. But rightly or wrongly, patience will reign in this situation.

While the Granit Xhaka vitriol and VAR controversy will dominate the headlines following Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon, below all of this heightened drama and conflict was yet another uninspiring display from a Unai Emery team that is lacking identity, conviction and clarity.

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Arsenal may have scored twice at the weekend and were wrongly snubbed a third, but all three came from their two centre-halves, Sokratis scoring the opener and the ‘third’ and David Luiz poking home to double the early lead in between. All in all, the Gunners did not deserve anything more than the point they got, even with VAR’s crude interventions.

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The pressure on Emery and his place as the head coach is only intensifying. To put into context just how poor the recent form has been, consider these following statistics from Charles Watts of Goal:

Two wins from the last eight Premier League games
12 goals conceded; 13 goals scored
One clean sheet
Two of the last seven goals have come from open play

Arsenal may sit in fifth place in the table, but that belies their inept performances at present. And Emery is the man responsible.

A growing proportion of the fan base is calling for Emery’s sacking. Chants in support of Mesut Ozil again rang around the Emirates on Sunday, while the Xhaka lightning rod is only driving a greater wedge between the club, and subsequently Emery, and the supporters. If you were to poll fans on whether Emery should be sacked, I would guess that over half would now say he should.

But Arsenal will not act with the same rash desires of an emotional and highly-charged supporter. Rightly or wrongly, they will let the Emery era play out and reserve judgement until sufficient time has passed.

As David Ornstein of The Athletic reported on Monday morning, the club does not believe in ‘knee-jerk reactions’:

"“Emery still has firm support from those above him, although there is now an acceptance that after a year and a half in the job and with the benefit of significant backing in the transfer market last summer, there is not much more the club can do and the onus is on him to deliver. They do not believe in knee-jerk reactions and will give Emery time, most probably until the end of the season, before deciding if he will be allowed to go into the final year of his contract.”"

There are valid reasons for agreeing with Arsenal’s stance here. Emery inherited a deplorable situation. There has been tremendous change at the club, which takes time to bed in and make a genuine and sustained impact. He is dealing with a competitive Premier League and only just missed out on a Europa League title and top-four finish last season. But most fans are unconvinced by his management style, frustrated with his conservative tactics, and question the lack of identity that he is yet to implement, something that was allegedly key to his appointment almost 18 months ago.

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If Emery was sacked this week, the majority would be happy. But Arsenal are a club of patience and continuity. Rightly or wrongly, they want to let this play out. In this case, patience will reign, but that might not be a good thing.

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