Norwich vs Arsenal: Kroenke reveals reason why Emery was sacked, sends message to Ljunberg

Arsenal director, Josh Kroenke, has claimed Unai Emery was sacked to save the club’s season.

Emery was dismissed on Friday morning, after just 18 months in charge at the Emirates.

The Spaniard has been replaced by assistant manager, Freddie Ljungberg.

Kroenke admits that the decision to sack former Sevilla boss Emery was “very difficult”, but insists that club chiefs had grown “concerned” after recent performances.

He told the club’s official website: “Like all of our fans and supporters around the globe, we’ve been concerned about our recent string of performances.

“We wanted to support Unai and his staff until we decided it was time to make a change.

“And ultimately we came to that decision over the last several weeks as a group between myself, Raul [Sanllehi], Vinai [Venkatesham] and Edu.

“[It was] Very difficult. First and foremost Unai is a good man, someone that we all respect very much. His work ethic on a daily basis between him and his staff was fantastic.

“Ultimately we started to fall short of several goals that we set.

“We still feel that we can achieve those goals this season, which is why we decided to make the change now.”

Kroenke also said Arsenal will take their time to get “the right candidate”.

He added: “Our process is already underway. It’s going to be led by Raul, Vinai, Edu and Huss here internally. I look forward to getting with them and working closely with them throughout this process.

“Because of our confidence in Freddie we’re very fortunate that we’re going to be entering into our process and doing a thorough search and it’s about finding the right candidate, it’s not about finding the first candidate.”