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Keown says Emery has taken Arsenal ‘as far as he can’ after ‘an absolute shambles of a performance’

Martin Keown thinks Unai Emery Arsenal ‘as far as he can’, calling their performance against Eintracht Frankfurt ‘an absolute shambles’.

Arsenal‘s 2-1 defeat in the Europa League on Thursday evening saw this miss out on the opportunity to book their place in the last 32 of Europa League, a second-half brace from Daichi Kamada condemning the North London outfit to a seventh game without a victory,

Speaking in his role as a pundit, former Gunners defender Martin Keown questioned Emery’s continued role in charge of the club, saying the Spaniard should ‘step aside now’, adding that the club is producing ‘relegation form’.

“I think he may well have taken the team as far as he can,” Keown told BT Sport.

“We just witnessed an absolute shambles of a performance in that second half.

“The team selection, the team motivation, the substitutions, the performance, everything was missing here. It was a dreadful performance.

“The fans turned many years ago on Terry Neill – 37 years ago. I was at the club when it happened and things got very toxic at the club, I think we are getting close to that again.

“Is he able to motivate this team? He seems to have lost the players. The desire seems to have ebbed away.

“I think maybe the manager may be in a position where he feels he needs to step aside now. Serious questions need to be asked. This is as bad as I have seen it.

“This is relegation form. Decisions need to be made otherwise the club is going to plunge further down the table.”

“To have no shots in the second half suggests he’s not able to make the tactical changes, to read the game well enough. He needed to make changes he wasn’t capable of making in that second half. The top managers do it, they get it right, and that’s what worries me. Is he really able to see the wood for trees? I don’t think he’s getting his head out of it and making the right decisions. He’s got to be more decisive.

“We’ve come in from a game against Southampton who are rooted to the bottom of the table and managed 21 shots. The alarm bells were ringing coming into this match.

“I hope he gets time, I want him to turn it around. I think he’s a good man – but he’s lost his way. I think he will get the time because I don’t think there’s a ready-made replacement.”

The Gunners current winless run of form is the worst the club has suffered since February 1992, drawing five and losing two of their last seven fixtures.

Read – Emery insists he has the ‘backing’ of the Arsenal board

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