Just after 10 am on Friday morning, Arsenal released an official statement that they have relieved Unai Emery of his duties at the club after 18 months at the club. The news doesn’t come as a surprise as Emery has failed to make any significant improvements to Arsenal since he arrived, leading to calls from large amounts of the Arsenal fanbase for Emery to be sacked. Doubts over Emery’s job began to arise after Arsenal’s failure to qualify for the Champions League, due to their 5th place finish in the Premier League and their 4-1 defeat to London rivals Chelsea in the Europa League final. Arsenal’s poor start to the season where they won only 4 of their opening 13 Premier League games clearly lost the boards faith in Emery, with a recent 2-1 defeat at home to Eintracht Frankfurt being the final nail in the coffin for Emery’s Arsenal career.
“We announce today that the decision has been taken to part company with our head coach Unai Emery and his coaching team.”
Speaking on behalf of the Arsenal board, Josh Kroenke (son of Arsenal’s majority shareholder Stan Kroenke) quoted, “Our most sincere thanks go to Unai and his colleagues who were unrelenting in their efforts to get the club back to competing at the level we all expect and demand.”
Kroenke added, “The decision has been taken due to results and performances not being at the level required.”
Arsenal coach and former player Freddie Ljungberg has been named as the interim manager for Arsenal for the time being until Arsenal announce a permanent manager, with his first game in charge being Arsenal’s visit to face Norwich City.
