Arsenal manager Unai Emery has received backing from the club’s board at a pre-planned meeting, despite calls for him to be sacked.

The Spaniard’s future in north London has been called into question after a number of dismal performances, the latest of which saw the Gunners slip to a deserved 2-0 defeat to Leicester at a rain-soaked King Power Stadium.

There have been calls from sections of Arsenal’s fanbase to oust Emery as manager, but it appears the board are willing to give him more time in order to turn things around, even though the Gunners are already eight points off behind Manchester City, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League qualification spot.

​The Sun have now revealed details of a meeting that took place with unspecified members of staff, where head of football Raul Sanllehi and managing director Vinai Venkatesham confirmed that although they are disappointed with how things are going, a rash decision over the manager’s future will not be made.

The pair told the meeting: “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.”

Former ​Barcelona manager Luis Enrique is one name that has been touted for the top job at the Emirates Stadium in recent days, but it seems that any suggestion that he’s ready to take over the reins are wide of the mark.

In fact, ​ESPN say Enrique would not be interested in returning to management yet after walking away from the Spain job in June for personal reasons, and would prefer to start a new project at the beginning of a campaign, rather than taking over a club in mid-season.

Emery at least has the comfort of the international break to try and formulate a rebuilding plan, knowing that he must change the toxic atmosphere at the club that has been worsened by former captain Granit Xhaka’s recent blow-up argument with supporters.

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