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Arsenal news: Unai Emery makes stark Champions League admission: ‘It isn’t enough’
ARSENAL boss Unai Emery has conceded his side’s form at the moment is not consistent enough to qualify for the Champions League and has pleaded with his side to arrest the slide in their away form.
Arsenal vs West Ham: Unai Emery reacts to 1-0 loss
That’s after Declan Rice’s strike saw Arsenal lose 1-0 at West Ham at the weekend.
The Gunners have won just one of their last seven on the road in the Premier League, losing at Southampton and being beaten heavily by Liverpool at Anfield before defeat to the Hammers.
They endured similar struggles under Arsene Wenger last season and won away from home just four times all season, including a run of seven successive losses.
The north London outfit appeared to have solved their issues on the road this season and after a hectic loss at Chelsea in August, in which they might have won had they been more clinical in front of goal, they won four of their next five.
Yet their recent away form has undermined their top-four prospects, having gone unbeaten on home soil since the opening day - including a draw with leaders Liverpool and a defeat of arch rivals Tottenham.
Arsenal have missed out on Champions League football in both of the last two campaigns and while they weren’t expected to return to Europe’s premier competition this term, missing out would undoubtedly hurt their chances of attracting better players as they seek to progress under Emery.
But they are now six points off of Chelsea in fourth and Manchester United’s defeat of Spurs means they join Arsenal on 41 points, having been eight points behind not so long ago.
And Emery admits major improvement is needed across the next 16 games if Arsenal are to see off competition for fourth.
We need to do more to be more competitive and to impose our idea and our quality
“Now it’s more difficult, it’s clear," the manager admitted in the wake of their London Stadium loss.
"I think the most important thing for us is to recover our confidence and be more competitive.
“We need consistency over 38 matches. Now it isn’t enough at the moment. Saturday was a bad result.
“It’s our challenge. Each match is our challenge away [from home]. We are working on that.
"It’s also the opposition team. Like here, for example, they are with their supporters, they feel good and strong and can push.
“We need to take more confidence, more performance collectively, being competitive away to change this moment.
"We started the season away well, being competitive and winning.
“And then sometimes we are doing but we need to do more to be more competitive and to impose our idea and our quality.
“West Ham also have very big players.”
Arsenal will hope to bounce back when they take on Chelsea in a crunch clash on Saturday (5.30pm) at the Emirates Stadium.