Draper: "I think they need to start looking for a new manager next season, whether they make the change mid-season, that's an interesting call"
Sunday 10 November 2019 13:01, UK
Arsenal are unlikely to sack Unai Emery mid-season but his long-term prospects at the club look bleak, say the Sunday Supplement panel.
Emery's side slipped to a 2-0 defeat at Leicester on Saturday, condemning the Gunners to their worst start to a season since 1982.
This most recent defeat leaves Arsenal eight points adrift of the top four, with Emery coming under severe pressure from parts of the Arsenal fanbase surrounding his future.
However, Emery says he still retains the support of Arsenal's hierarchy despite the Gunners' faltering season slumping to a new low, and Rob Draper, chief football writer at the Mail on Sunday, cannot see the Spaniard being dismissed mid-season.
He told the Sunday Supplement: "Emery was talking post-match about how he'll sort it out given time but there's absolutely no evidence that he can sort it out in time. It's been flat-lining for a while. They haven't improved since Arsene Wenger left and they don't look like they're going to.
"They'll probably go and sack him now I've said this, but you get the sense they are not going to sack him this week. They'll let it run on when the club is in the top six although you could argue they are not in touch of the top four. It is still very early days, they could make the top four.
"I don't think he's on the verge of going now. I can't see how he's there next season. We're 18 months in and no one can really see the vision for Unai Emery at Arsenal. Where are they going? What's improved? At the beginning, they were slightly better coached at the back and slightly more organised but you don't get that sense anymore.
"I think they need to start looking for a new manager next season, whether they make the change mid-season, that's an interesting call."
For Arsenal, the defeat at Leicester was another galling 90 minutes as the Foxes laid down a significant marker in the race to finish in the Premier League's top four.
The Times' chief football writer Henry Winter thinks there is a huge contrast between the two clubs, both on and off the field.
He said: "The contrast between the manager, the recruitment, the belief on the pitch, direction and leadership off the pitch. Leicester have got good people working behind the scenes and Arsenal - partly because of absentee landlord Stan Kroenke - have a lack of direction. You know exactly where Leicester are going. They are upwardly mobile. And Arsenal are sliding."
