Emery feeling heat after dismal Saints draw
ALEXANDRE LACAZETTE saved a point for Arsenal but Unai Emery looks even more like a lame duck with lame excuses.
The Spaniard had already lost the backing of the majority of the fans before this dismal display.
And being played off the park by a Saints team still stuck in the drop zone has seen his stock drop even lower.
Emery has already been given a vote of confidence from a Gunners hierarchy that sees itself as too classy to fire managers willy nilly.
But Jose Mourinho’s arrival at rivals Tottenham has upped d the ante hugely.
The Special One has already y got a stalled Spurs side rolling g again and the Gunners are now w just a point ahead of their rivals. Without Lacazette’s stoppage-time leveller Arsenal, with their negative goal-difference tally, would already be behind their neighbours.
Arsenal have zero chance of returning to the Champions League on this showing - unless they bite the bullet and end the Emery era sooner rather than later.
A club with ambition would try to tempt Mauricio Pochettino to the Emirates. He wouldn’t be the first to have bossed both.
“I know I can do better and
I’m going to try to do so,” promised
Emer Eme r y y, , who declared the first 20 minutes of the second half as the best of the season.
“I understand the supporters, they are frustrated and disappointed and the players feel the same. My job is to work, analyse and find the solution to improve.”
Ralph Hasenhuttl, on the other hand, has only to ask his players for more of the same next week.
Stuart Armstrong’s early effort, which flashed just wide, should have been a warning to the dozy Gunners.
But they took no notice and
paid the price with Danny napping – David Luiz wasn’t even watching – and Ings strode forward on the left to slot home off a post.
The boos that followed were inevitable, although chants of ‘Come On Arsenal’ were louder.
And that encouragement led to an 18th-minute equaliser through Lacazette.
Mesut Ozil, back in Emery’s good books and starting for the second successive game, found Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in space in the box. Bertrand flung himself in the way of the shot but the rebound fell to the France striker for his third Gunners goal of the season.
Emery switched to a back four for the second half, with Nicolas Pepe replacing Chambers and it was end-to-end stuff for a while.
Emery will be having nightmares about Sokratis’ moment of madness in his own box that saw Cedric Soares rob him but fail to set up Michael Obafemi for a tap-in.
Obafemi then delivered the ball into the box that saw Kieran Tierney panic and push Ings over to stop him reaching it. Referee Stuart Attwell pointed to the spot and, after a VAR check for offside, James Ward-Prowse made it 2-1 on the rebound after Bernd Leno saved his weak penalty.
Saints sub Moussa Djenepo then missed two great chances to wrap up victory before Gabriel Martinelli crossed for Lacazette to level in stoppage time.
Hasenhuttl said: “It was a big chance to take a win here. The message is that this is the only way to play, to stay in this league.”