Arsenal and Unai Emery: The dreaded statement of support?

Arsenal came out in full support of manager Unai Emery on Monday. But could this be the dreaded statement of backing just prior to the inevitable sacking?

It is quite clear what the Arsenal fans want: Unai Emery to be sacked. Social media only speaks in one direction, the feeling around the Emirates is beginning to worsed too, while there is a sense of an inevitable doom looming over Emery and his time at the club.

Find the latest episode of the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here — Unai Emery out, again

And yet, if you were to ask those in charge in north London, while they would not entirely disregard the recent poor form of the team and accept that change must be made and improvements must be seen, they would also view Emery’s position as head coach somewhat secure.

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In fact, after the weekend’s 2-0 defeat to Leicester City that leaves Arsenal eight points off the top-four pace, the club released a statement through the English press. In it, they expressed their full support for Emery and his coaching staff. It read:

"“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, 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.”"

Now, in reality, these statements mean very little. The club is hardly going to publicly question their own manager’s position. And we have seen these type of statements made several times previously by other clubs, only for the coach to be sacked two weeks later after yet another two defeats.

Luckily for Emery, not only does he have an international break to recharge and regroup; the run of fixtures are kind until mid-December, with home matches against Southampton and Brighton and trips to Norwich City and West Ham United providing an opportunity to string some victories together over the next four league games. But the pressure is mounting. Any slip up against lesser teams would see Emery placed under immense criticism.

And in that situation, this empty statement will not mean very much at all. All it says that Arsenal currently believe that Emery is the man to turn things around and that they are working very hard to improve results. But beliefs change. Any loss will quickly motivate those in power to think very differently about Emery and his coaching.

This, then, could be the dreaded statement of support, the one that means very little and results in the manager being sacked. Emery is under increasing pressure, no matter what the club may public profess.