Kieran Tierney has refused to blame Unai Emery for Arsenal’s problems this season, insisting it’s up to the players to improve their own situation.

Tierney joined Arsenal from Celtic over the summer, but he took a while to get out on the pitch for his new club after injury. He’s made seven appearances so far, providing a couple of assists, but most recently he’s been part of Arsenal’s four-game run without a win.

Speaking in quotes reported by the Telegraph, Tierney said the focus shouldn’t just be on Unai Emery for the way things are going for the team.

“It is up to us as players to correct it on the pitch,” said Tierney. “For me, he [Emery] has been brilliant since I have come in. I have learned a lot every day, playing with great players. Everybody in the changing room has belief in each other and the manager.

“[Conceding late goals] is something we are going to need to work on as a team and on the training field as well. It is something we will be looking to correct of course, but we are in a process and just getting there.”

It was always unlikely Tierney was going to say anything else about the head coach, especially given he’s only joined the club recently. It’s still a good sign that Arsenal have players who will back their coach publicly though, even if he’s a particularly unpopular one at the moment.

The only thing worse for Arsenal than hiring a bad head coach is having a squad who refuse to get behind their boss. You can always change a coach when things go wrong but it’s a lot harder to uproot an entire unruly squad.

Whether you want a change at the top or not, it’s up to the Arsenal hierarchy to decide when it happens, not the players.