The Arsenal higher-ups see the club’s next six games as an opportunity for Unai Emery to turn things around for the team, according to reports.
The Evening Standard report that Arsenal have privately dismissed that head of football Raul Sanllehi has met Luis Enrique over the possibility of replacing Unai Emery. Instead, they’re still throwing their backing behind the head coach, at least for the time being.
The club see the next six fixtures as a good opportunity for Emery to halt the current decline before the big matches come around at the end of the year. Here are the games in question:
- Arsenal vs Southampton – November 23rd, 15:00 BST
- Arsenal vs Frankfurt – November 28th, 20:00 BST
- Norwich vs Arsenal – December 1st, 14:00 BST
- Arsenal vs Brighton – December 5th, 20:15 BST
- West Ham vs Arsenal – December 9th, 20:00 BST
- Standard Liege vs Arsenal – December 12th, 17:55 BST
There are certainly some winnable Premier League games in there, and it helps that Arsenal are in such a strong position in the Europa League group.
One draw in the final two Europa League games would be enough to qualify for the knockout stages, and two points or more in those games would guarantee top spot. Arsenal could even finish top without earning another point if the other two results went their way, though that’s unlikely.
As a result, Emery can really focus on the Premier League, and he needs to. The Gunners are eight points off the top four, and nine points behind Chelsea and Leicester City.
After the upcoming run of six games, they have Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United between December 15th and January 1st, in addition to Everton and Bournemouth away, two more fixtures that have proved difficult in recent seasons.
The results have to start coming now, or it’s going to be way too late by the time 2020 rolls around.