5 Arsenal players who have flopped under Unai Emery this season 

Arsenal FC v Eintracht Frankfurt: Group F - UEFA Europa League
Arsenal FC v Eintracht Frankfurt: Group F - UEFA Europa League

For the Arsenal faithful, the season couldn't possibly get over soon. Nothing has gone right for the Gunners with the club's performance in an absolute mess in recent weeks. This run of abysmal performance has prompted fans to call for the sacking of Unai Emery, just after 18 months in charge.

Without a win in over a month, the board has finally announced the sacking of the 48-year-old manager. Emery's poor tactics have left many Arsenal players on the suffering end of his management and inability to resolve resounding issues in the Gunners' defence. With each passing game, it appears that the players no longer had confidence in Emery and all these factors contributed to his sacking.

On that note, here are five players who have failed to impress this season. Their subpar showings on the pitch might be attributed to the manager's downfall but these players have also caused the team's confidence levels dwindle as the weeks go by.


#5 Granit Xhaka

Arsenal FC v Eintracht Frankfurt: Group F - UEFA Europa League
Arsenal FC v Eintracht Frankfurt: Group F - UEFA Europa League

The season might have changed, but Granit Xhaka's performance in midfield is still equally sloppy and lacklustre. He continues to lose his man, make rash tackles and give away penalties. The worst of them all, he was involved in a spat with the Arsenal fans while playing at home.

When a team is underperforming, the players will look to their captain to steer the team back in the right direction and to get out of the turmoil. However, that failed to happen this season. Instead of being a role model and a leader for the team, Xhaka made a fool out of himself and drew irk from the home fans. The situation was so bad that it was beyond hope and Emery had to appoint Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as the new club captain.

Aside from the spat with fans, the midfielder's performance statistics have not been impressive either. In his nine Premier League appearances this season, Xhaka has a mere tackle success of just 50%. He has also lost more duels (52) than he has won (47). With Emery constantly changing his formation, the former captain has not benefited at all from these disruptions.

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#4 David Luiz

Arsenal FC v Southampton FC - Premier League
Arsenal FC v Southampton FC - Premier League

In a bid to resolve Arsenal's defensive woes, Emery signed David Luiz from Chelsea in the summer transfer window for £8 million. Just like how Petr Cech had failed to live up to his reputation while playing at the Emirates Stadium, Luiz seems to be following in the footsteps of his former Chelsea teammate. The Brazilian's presence in the backline has not improved the situation and Arsenal continue to concede in almost every single game.

The 32-year-old has kept just one clean sheet in 12 league appearances. Given his experience in the Premier League and on the big stage, Luiz surely has got to do better than this. Although he is one of the taller defenders in Arsenal's backline, the former Chelsea centre-back has failed to use it to his advantage and has won just 50% of aerial duels.

His partner-in-crime, Sokratis Papastathopoulos, also deserves to be singled out for the punishable mistakes that have been committed this season.


#3 Sokratis Papastathopoulos

Arsenal FC v Southampton FC - Premier League
Arsenal FC v Southampton FC - Premier League

Sokratis is almost always involved in everything at the back regardless of it being good or bad. He can be pulling an opponent's shirt, tripping the opposition player or make a really crucial clearance. However, the Greek international's lack of concentration has also resulted in him giving away the ball far too often and easily in the Gunners' own half.

Similar to Xhaka and Luiz, Sokratis tends to lose his head at times and make mistakes at the back. This season, the centre-back has committed one error which led to a goal. Error-prone, slow and inconsistent, the 31-year-old is definitely an easy target for opponents.

To challenge for the top four and win trophies, how can Arsenal tolerate having defenders who make simple mistakes on the pitch?

#2 Dani Ceballos

Arsenal FC v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Premier League
Arsenal FC v Wolverhampton Wanderers - Premier League

Signed on loan from Real Madrid, Ceballos has provided only two assists in 11 appearances. Emery showed faith in him by constantly naming him in the starting lineup and even thought of Ceballos to be capable of replacing Mesut Ozil. However, the Spaniard's creativity is nowhere near the level which Ozil possesses.

Taking on the No.8 shirt, Ceballos had big shoes to fill. The former taker of the shirt, Aaron Ramsey, enjoyed a cross accuracy of 33% and shooting accuracy of 39% last season. It was easily the Welsh international's best season for the Gunners last time round. On the other hand, Ceballos has a far lower cross accuracy of just 13% and 33% for shooting.


#1 Nicolas Pepe

Vitoria Guimaraes v Arsenal FC: Group F - UEFA Europa League
Vitoria Guimaraes v Arsenal FC: Group F - UEFA Europa League

No Arsenal fan will believe that he is worth £72 million because Pepe has contributed close to nothing since his arrival at North London. When the 24-year-old played for Lille in Ligue 1 last season, he netted 22 goals and provided 11 assists in 38 appearances. Despite making 12 Premier League appearances this season, Pepe has scored just once and it was from a penalty.

The only applause he deserves thus far is coming on to score two excellent free-kicks against Vitoria in the Europa League. Other than that, what has Pepe done on the pitch? Just like Emery, the Ivory Coast forward has been a flop this season. In lieu of his poor performance, Pepe has not started the last three Premier League matches and he also played no role in the Gunners' defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt.

If the right-winger fails to improve in the coming weeks, he might go down as one of the worst signings Arsenal have made in their history considering the hefty price that was paid to secure his services.

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Edited by Alan John