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For 54 minutes it was tempting to wonder whether this low-key encounter, watched by a sparse attendance and trundling along nicely enough in Arsenal’s favour, might one day go down in history as the night a troubled head coach began clawing his way back from the brink. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal had left them looking as comfortable as this team ever can, and there was even the good news story of a quiet reintegration for Granit Xhaka, who had performed tidily enough. Then Daichi Kamada struck two bolts from the blue for Eintracht Frankfurt and it is impossible to escape the conclusion that, no matter what Unai Emery tries, his tenure is doomed to fail.
By now it feels like death by a thousand cuts for a club that, despite this defeat, will probably be playing Europa League knock-out football in the new year. The chances of Emery presiding over that look vanishingly slim now and, as the disappointments rack up, the pressure on Arsenal’s hierarchy to make a clean break in the coming days becomes ever greater.
Until Wednesday, the expectation had been that Emery would pitch Granit Xhaka into an away fixture: perhaps in Liege a fortnight from now, a far enough remove from the Emirates and with scant risk of repeating the rage into which he and the home crowd had baited each other a month ago. But it had not taken an intricate reading of the tea leaves, when Emery spoke before Eintracht’s visit, to understand that the ex-captain’s return would be accelerated and perhaps pragmatism had played its part. If anything, Arsenal’s performances had become more dysfunctional in Xhaka’s absence.
There was also the question of how poisonous, in reality, an atmosphere this muted could become. A low crowd had been predicted and it duly materialised, in part because of a ban handed to Eintracht supporters and to some degree as consequence of Europa League football, but largely due to the sheer disillusionment that has infected these parts. Never mind the given attendance, swelled by absent season ticket holders: this venue may not have hosted a first-team fixture in front of fewer spectators.
So Xhaka walked out neither to a red carpet nor a bear pit. He had received a smattering of applause when returning to the dressing room after warming up but his first touch, a minute and a half in, brought no audible response. Both player and head coach would have settled for that; Emery would have been happy enough, too, with a lively start from his team, who attacked a goal overseen by cavernous banks of empty seats in the Clock End.
They should have been in front within 11 minutes when Bukayo Saka stood up a cross from the left that Aubameyang glanced wide from six yards. Aubameyang, whose own deployment told that Emery is running out of room for error, would probably have scored if his teammate Joe Willock had not jumped in his eyeline.
Shortly afterwards, those paying attention were almost able to hail a Xhaka assist when Gabriel Martinelli flicked his corner towards goal only to see Gelson Fernandes clear. That set-piece had arisen when Martinelli, gifted an excellent chance by a bizarre defensive header by Danny da Costa, drilled a low effort against Frederik Ronnow’s legs. The Eintracht keeper also blocked from Saka either side of the half-hour and stopped a header from his own defender, Martin Hinteregger, flying over him and in.
Eintracht can usually count on a vibrant visiting support for these assignments but crowd trouble in their match against Vitória Guimaraes last month had brought about their absence. A few hundred had gathered around the stadium but with no prospect of being allowed in. Maybe that accounted for a first-half performance of scant threat from the Bundesliga side. Arsenal remained much the more convincing and got their reward just before half-time, when Martinelli made fine ground down the right and cut a low ball across for Aubameyang, who finished first-time with sizeable chunks of help from Ronnow and the crossbar.
There was still time for Xhaka to skew wide from 18 yards. A fairytale turnaround in fortunes is clearly not imminent but he may have been heartened by the response shortly before the goal when, after taking a heavy knock from Djibril Sow, he soldiered on to his warmest appreciation yet from the stands.
Arsenal had already lost David Luiz, who started alongside Xhaka in midfield, to a knock earlier in the half. Xhaka looked sprightly enough three minutes into the second period, though, when he showed neat skill on the right byline before teeing up Calum Chambers, who skied over. Willock, bursting through, had already drawn another stop from Ronnow and it is entirely in keeping with Arsenal’s current fortunes that their profligacy had a heavy price.
It came in the form of two superb finishes from Kamada, the Japan midfielder, in the space of nine minutes. The first, arrowed left-footed from just outside the box after collecting Da Costa’s pass, awoke a large pocket of Eintracht fans in the middle tier. The second, drilled with his right from similar range after a corner had been half-cleared, was a familiar punch in the gut to everyone else and the old tensions simmered back up.
The sting had left Arsenal now, their zest of earlier on ebbing away as the minutes ticked down.
Saka went down in the box late on but no penalty was given and Emery totters on to what now looks sure to be an unhappy end.
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