Raul Sanllehi, Vinai Venkatesham: Arsenal 'Firmly Believe' in Manager Unai Emery

Arsenal head of football Raul Sanllehi and managing director Vinai Venkatesham have offered their backing to under-pressure manager Unai Emery, saying they "firmly believe" he is the right man for the job.

The Gunners made it five games in a row without a win on Saturday, as they were well beaten 2-0 by Leicester City in the Premier League.

Unsurprisingly, supporters have started to lose patience with the manager, who was appointed in May 2018 to replace legendary boss Arsene Wenger.

Per Charles Watts of Goal, Sanllehi and Venkatesham addressed club staff on Monday at a pre-arranged event, noting they still believe in the former Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain coach:

"We are as disappointed as everyone else with both our results and performances at this stage of the season. We share the frustration with our fans, Unai, players and all our staff as they are not at the level we want or expect.

"Things need to improve to meet our objectives for the season, and we firmly believe Unai is the right man for the job, together with the backroom team we have in place. We are all working intensively behind the scenes to turn things around and are confident we will.

"We never take our fantastic support for granted. We hope we can all stick together and get behind the team in this challenging period, as together we are stronger."

The Athletic's David Ornstein reported Sunday that Arsenal were not considering sacking Emery and that any decision regarding the manager will be made at the end of the current campaign.

Per OptaJoe, since Emery's arrival the team have not been able to progress:

In his first season, the manager was afforded patience by the fanbase. While there were issues in the side, Emery was able to steer the Gunners to the UEFA Europa League final. After some exciting summer signings—most notably the club-record acquisition of Nicolas Pepe—it was anticipated they would press on again this term.

However, the team has regressed with Emery unable to strike any sort of balance in his side. The Gunners struggle for defensive organisation despite their lack of attacking ambition and are too reliant on star forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the final third.

As James McNicholas of The Athletic noted, Arsenal stopper Bernd Leno has faced a lot of shots this term:

Football writer Tim Stillman is disappointed with the lack of assertiveness from key figures at the club:

The noises coming out of Arsenal indicate that Emery's position is safe for the time being, although it feels as though something extraordinary will be required for him to transform the opinion of the fanbase.

The Gunners will be in action against toiling Southampton when domestic football resumes in a fortnight, giving Emery an ideal opportunity to turn the tide in his favour. If Arsenal slip up in that encounter, then the pressure on the manager from the fans will be close to untenable levels.