Unai Emery Says Arsenal 'Improved' in Frankfurt Loss as Sack Talk Intensifies

Arsenal manager Unai Emery said the team "improved" despite their 2-1 UEFA Europa League defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt on Thursday, but The Athletic's David Ornstein has suggested he could be sacked on Friday.

Emery gave his reaction to BT Sport after the Gunners' winless run stretched to seven matches in all competitions:

Per MailOnline's Kishan Vaghela, he said: 

"We have the last match to achieve that [qualification]. Today we improved. The second half, the first five-10 minutes were good for us. We lost control for 15 minutes.

"We were winning 1-0 and had the chances to score the second goal. They pushed it and scored two goals. In the last 20 minutes, we tried again to get a result."

According to Ornstein, his exit from the club looks imminent, with assistant and former Gunners star Freddie Ljungberg set to replace him:

Ornstein noted there has been "an alarming dip in form and confidence" at Arsenal in recent months, and the defeat on Thursday seems to be "the final straw" for the powers that be at the club, who had publicly backed him during the international break.

ESPN FC's Julien Laurens also reported that sources have said Emery's position at the club is "untenable," and he could be sacked before the team face Norwich City on Sunday.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang fired Arsenal in front shortly before half-time in a sparsely populated Emirates Stadium.

Two fine finishes from Daichi Kamada after the break handed Frankfurt the win (U.S. and UK only, respectively):

Goal's Charles Watts and The Times' Henry Winter called for Emery to be relieved of his duties:

Arsenal remain top of their Europa League group, and they'll qualify for the knockout phase as long as they don't lose to Standard Liege by five goals in their final match.

However, their last win in any competition came against Vitoria on October 24, and their last Premier League win came against Bournemouth on October 6.

Arsenal are eight points off the top four and one ahead of Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur. The latter have swapped Mauricio Pochettino for Jose Mourinho in the dugout, and they'll hope the Portuguese can engineer a turnaround in the coming weeks.

The Gunners have eight league games between December 1 and January 1. If they don't turn things around immediately, they could find themselves without a hope of catching those already in the top four and behind United and Spurs in the race for the top six, too.