Football news - 'Absolute shambles!' Martin Keown rips into Unai Emery’s Arsenal after latest defeat
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Updated 28/11/2019 at 23:00 GMT
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown tore into the side’s “absolute shambles” of a performance in the defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt, suggesting head coach Unai Emery should stand down before he is sacked.
Emery Out
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Frankfurt battled back to a 2-1 win at a half-empty Emirates Stadium on Thursday night as Arsenal missed the chance to guarantee a spot in the Europa League knock-out stages.
Arsenal will still qualify from the group if they avoid a heavy defeat at Standard Liege in December, but the loss leaves them winless in seven matches.
That is a poorer run than they ever suffered under Arsene Wenger, with 1992’s stretch of eight games without a win the last time the going has been so bad at the club.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang had given Arsenal the lead just before half-time, but Daichi Kamada’s second-half double ultimately turned the tie on its head.
And Keown did not mince his words on BT Sport when reflecting on Arsenal’s second-half performance.
"I think he may well have taken the team as far as he can. We just witnessed an absolute shambles of a performance in that second half," he said.
“The team selection, the team motivation, the substitutions, the performance, everything was missing tonight. It was dreadful.
“Is he able to motivate this team? He seems to have lost the players. The desire seems to have ebbed away.
I think maybe the manager might be in a position where he might even feel like he has to step to one side now. Serious questions need to be asked, this is as bad as I’ve seen it.
“I know change was needed. Wenger was at the club just too long, but now it looks like the club has to go in a different direction.
“This is relegation form. Decisions have got to be made, because otherwise Arsenal are going to plunge further down the table.
It’s very sad. The fans are voting with their feet, there was hardly anyone there. Where’s the desire? Where’s the identity? The brand Wenger produced there has ebbed away.
"If the manager doesn't survive this, he will look back at this as the beginning of the end. It looked like [the players] were making the decisions.
"Confidence has ebbed away completely. No snap in their play, no real direction. Who looked really bothered out there?
"I looked to the sideline and I don't see the leadership. There's some big questions that need to be asked by the powers that be."
John Hartson added: "There was no urgency in the Arsenal performance. Very lacklustre, it looked like they had no direction from the manager in terms of how they were going to play.
All in all, very disappointing and on the back of that performance - Unai Emery- they have to be starting to ask questions about hiss job now, they really have.
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