Arsenal face the prospect of getting relegated if they don’t sack Unai Emery, according to club legend Martin Keown.
The Gunners are now on their worst run since 1992 after a 2-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League on Thursday night saw their search for a win stretch to seven games.
It was also the first time the north London side had lost at home this season, having led at the interval through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s strike.
However, the visitors controlled proceedings in the second with a quickfire double from Daichi Kamada condemning the Gunners to a first Europa League defeat in this season’s competition.
A chorus of boos rang around a barely half-empty Emirates upon the full-time whistle, but a defiant Emery maintained after the game that his side had shown signs of improvements.
That was not a view supported by Keown though, who gave a scathing assessment of Emery and his team on BT Sport – insisting ‘decisions have to be made’ by club hierarchy sooner rather than later.
“Emery has taken the team as far as he can,” Keown said. “We just witnessed an absolute shambles of a performance in that second half.
“The team selection, the team motivation, the substitutions, the performance – everything was missing here. It was a dreadful performance.
“This is relegation form. Do the club realise how tricky this will now be? Decisions have to be made.
“There are football people at the top of the club that need to make the decisions that need to be made because otherwise Arsenal will plunge even further down the table.”
Such has been the magnitude of their demise under Emery, the invincible legend believes there is no way back for the former Sevilla and PSG boss.
“You have to go back to when the fans turned on Terry Neill 37 years ago,” Keown explained.
“I was at the club when it happened and things got toxic in the club and I think we are getting close to that again.
“Is he able to motivate this team? He seem to have lost the players and the team. The desire seems to have ebbed away.
ARSENALS WORST RUN SINCE 1992
Draw – 2-2 Crystal Palace
Draw – 5-5 Liverpool (lost on penalties)
Draw – 1-1 Wolves
Draw – 1-1 Vitoria
Lost – 2-0 Leicester
Draw – 2-2 Southampton
Lost – 1-2 Eintracht Frankfurt
“I could question players. Xhaka wanted to stay on the field but probably should have gone off, Mustafi couldn’t get off quick enough.
“You have [Alexandre] Lacazette and [Nicolas] Pepe sitting on the bench to come on to come back into the game and it isn’t enough.
“Maybe the manager is in a position where he feels like he needs to step to one side now.”
Despite the adverse result, Arsenal have all but qualified for the last-32 knockout stage after Standard Liege were held to a 1-1 draw with Vitoria.
It now means the Belgian side would need to win by five goals to dump the north London side out of the competition – a highly unlikely scenario.
