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Unai Emery Sacked By Arsenal Following Europa League Loss

Unai Emery Sacked By Arsenal Following Europa League Loss

The Arsenal manager has been under pressure with no wins in his past seven games in all competitions.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

Unai Emery has said his final 'good ebening' as Arsenal manager after the Spanish manager was sacked following the team's loss against Eintracht Frankfurt.

Speaking on the sacking, Josh Kroenke said: "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. We wish Unai and his team nothing but future success."

Freddie Ljungberg will take charge of Arsenal on an interim-basis until a new successor is appointed.

Image: PA
Image: PA

Ahead of the Europa League game the manager was under pressure after six games in three competitions without a win, including being knocked out of the Carabao Cup, drawing to Southampton in the Premier League and losing to Vitoria in Europe.

The Gunners took the lead on Thursday night, through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in first half injury time, but two goals in the second half from Daichi Kamada gave the Germans the win and saw the end of Emery's 18 months in charge at the Emirates.

Emery took over from Arsene Wenger, after the Frenchman left following 22 years in charge of the Gunners, and initially looked to improve things in north London.

The former PSG manager had a good run in the Europa League last season, having previously won the competition three times with Sevilla.

They eventually reached the final in Azerbaijan in May but lost to fellow Londoners Chelsea 4-1, which denied them the chance of getting into this season's Champions League, having also finished fifth in the Premier League.

Emery brought in Nicolas Pepe, from Lille, David Luiz, from Chelsea, and Kieran Tierney, from Celtic, in the summer and there was some optimism from fans.

They started the seasons with wins over Newcastle and Burnley and drew with Spurs, with a loss to Liverpool in between, but things soon fell apart.

Having led struggling Watford 2-0 away they drew with the Hornets and following a 1-0 win over Bournemouth in the beginning of October they then went on a run of one win in nine games.

Arsenal again threw away a 2-0 lead in the league, this time against Crystal Palace, failed to beat an understrength Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, having led 3-1 and 4-2.

Draws with Wolves and Vitoria have followed and a loss to Leicester City before last weekend's draw with Southampton looked like it could be the end for the former Sevilla boss.

The Gunners were lucky to still be in the game when Alexandre Lacazette equalised late in injury time, a goal that wasn't met with much celebration.

That goal may have been enough to keep the 48-year-old in a job for a little longer but the loss to Eintracht Frankfurt was clearly a step too far.

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Topics: Unai Emery