Arsenal: The 5 big reasons why Unai Emery was fired

3. Top four slipping away

For those that called for Arsenal to fire Unai Emery a long time before Friday morning, their primary reasons centred on the performances of the team and overall progression of the squad — more on this later. But the board seemed unmoved by these arguments. Rather, it was not until the results began to tail off that they grew concerned about the trajectory of Emery’s management.

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While there is a major flaw in their logic there, — performances lead to results and the fact that Arsenal performed poorly under Emery throughout his tenure, even when they were winning, meant that they were going to start losing eventually — once the results tailed off in recent months, the sack was inevitable.

Arsenal have not won a match in seven games, the first time since 1992 that has happened. They are suffering their worst start to a season since 1983. They have just four Premier League wins all season and have just 26 points in their last 20 games, which is not far off relegation pace. Most pertinently, they are eight points behind top four, with Leicester City another three points clear.

At the start of the season, Emery’s aim was quite clear: regain Champions League football, ideally through finishing in the top four. He is nowhere near to achieving that aim. Sacking him, then, became a necessity, because the top four, for Arsenal, is equally required.