'An absolute shambles' - Unai Emery on the brink at Arsenal after fans jeer demoralising defeat

Another setback for Gunners boss in Europa League with team on worst run for 27 years

Powered by automated translation

Unai Emery's future at Arsenal is looking bleak after a dismal home defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League sparked a huge backlash from fans.

Emery was supposed to be the man to take Arsenal back to the top of the English game after years of underachievement under Arsene Wenger.

But, after five Premier League matches without a win, his future became even more uncertain on Thursday when Arsenal squandered the lead to lose 2-1 against the Germans, a result greeted by deafening boos around a sparsely-attended Emirates Stadium.

Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown said: "We witnessed an absolute shambles of a performance in that second half."

Having not won in any competition in seven games, it is Arsenal's worst run since 1992 ahead of their trip to Norwich on Sunday.

Emery, 48, who was publicly backed by Arsenal's hierarchy during the international break, admitted: "Now our moment is not good. We need to win, take confidence and I think we are better than we are showing. The players, the coaches and myself.

"My work and my job is firstly analysing the match, how we are in the Europa League, how we are going to play on Sunday.

Arsenal went ahead through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang but Frankfurt's Daichi Kamada scored twice after the break.

Fans at a half-empty Emirates Stadium made their displeasure known by booing the under-fire Emery and some held up cards calling for the Spaniard to be sacked.

Emery added: "We deserved more, we controlled the game in the first half, we scored one goal. In the second half ... we needed to score but we lost the control after 15 minutes and they scored two.

"We didn't push, we didn't really take the chances to draw or win this match ... I can understand the criticism about the team, about me."

Arsenal had never experienced as poor a run across 1,235 games under previous manager Wenger, whom Emery replaced in May 2018, after the Frenchman's reign of 22 years.

Emery had "taken the team as far as he can", added Keown. "The team selection, the team motivation, the substitutions, the performance - everything was missing. This is relegation form. Do the club realise how tricky this will now be?

"There are football people at the top of the club that need to make the decisions because otherwise Arsenal will plunge even further down the table."

Emery brushed aside questions on whether he would remain in charge if eighth-placed Arsenal fail to win at Norwich.

One positive for Arsenal, who could move up to fifth place if results go their way this weekend, is that they have lost just once in their past 15 visits to Norwich in all competitions.