...AND HE TELLS FANS ‘BACK US’
VUNAI EMERY has admitted playing at the Emirates holds no fear for Arsenal’s opponents.
The Gunners have gone six games without a win – their worst run since 1998 – and lie eight points off fourth place in the table.
Emery desperately needs a win at home to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League tonight if he is to start silencing the increasing calls from Gunners fans for him to go.
But the Spaniard said that task will be made all the more difficult as there is little home comfort for them at the Emirates.
He said: “Teams come here and are playing fearlessly against us.This is the first thing we need to change.
“We need to change it, we need to be strong and we need to be together.We need to be strong for our supporters and show them our capacity and our skills.
“We are not showing that skill and performance 100 per cent. But we are going to try to change that. We’ve been speaking about how we can improve and the first way of changing that is by being more compact.
“Then we can show our skills, quality. In the last few matches, we’ve had tactical issues and we need to do better.”
Emery, whose team only need a point tonight to qualify for the knockout stages, knows that much more hinges on this game than progressing in European competition.
Nineteen times during the press conference last night he called for the fans, who had booed his team off after the dismal 2-2 draw against Southampton at the Emirates on Saturday – where the Gunners only avoided defeat thanks to an injury-time goal – to get behind his team. Even though he claimed he retains the support of the Arsenal board our despite their dreadful start to the season, Emery clearly feels he and his team do not enjoy similar backing from the supporters at home games. “The players need to connect with the supporters and the supporters need to help the players,” said the Arsenal boss. “Then for me, it’s about supporting them. Some players aren’t feeling 100 per cent confident and this is the first target. We need, to feel confident.” But, significantly, when asked whether he and his team
Arsenal to win 3-0
NUNO Espirito Santo refused to be drawn into the prospect of replacing Unai Emery as Arsenal boss yesterday. TheWolves coach is in demand after his outstanding work since arriving at Molineux in May 2017, while Emery is struggling at the Emirates.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s Europa League group game against Sporting Braga, Nuno said: “I am not going to mates would be playing for their manager tonight, defender Shkodran Mustafi dodged the issue, replying: “First of all we play for the club.
“If you play for Arsenal, you play for a big club and you know you have to give everything.
“We play for each other because we are a team. The boys in the dressing room and the coaching staff are all in the same boat. If the coach is under pressure, the players are too.We stick together.”
ARSENAL (probable): Leno; Sokratis, Chambers, Mustafi; Bellerin, Ozil, Torreira, Guendouzi, Tierney; Aubameyang, Lacazette. answer about that. I will never mention an issue which is not a reality.
“Mainly because speaking about a job which has a manager on it would be disrespectful.
“Am I happy atWolves? Yeah.We are doing OK. There is a lot of room to improve as a club and as a team. I don’t talk about ifs or possibilities or things which are not real.What is real for us is we are here, we have to train and we prepare ourselves.
“Thursday’s game is going to be tough so all the details we can give to the players are more important things – there