(Bloomberg) -- English Premier League soccer club Arsenal fired head coach Unai Emery after 18 months in his job, following a run of seven games without a win.
Former player Freddie Ljungberg will take on responsibility for the first team as interim head coach, the London-based outfit said in a statement, adding that a search for a new head coach is under way.
Emery, 48, took over at Arsenal 18 months ago, moving from Paris Saint-Germain to succeed veteran manager Arsene Wenger. He was fired the day after Arsenal fell to defeat against German team Eintracht Frankfurt in the UEFA Europa League. Arsenal currently sits eighth in the Premier League.
Arsenal’s decision to dismiss Emery came little more than a week after fierce north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur fired their own head coach, Mauricio Pochettino, replacing him with former Chelsea and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho.
The poor start to Emery’s second season at the club led to fan disenchantment against the Spanish coach and the team’s American owner, Stan Kroenke. Thousands of seats were left empty during Thursday night’s home match at the 60,260-seat Emirates Stadium in north London.
Fans of the club have long had an uneasy relationship with Kroenke, who they accuse of a lack of investment in the team’s playing staff. In July his son Josh Kroenke took the unusual step of posting a response on YouTube to a critical fan statement.
Stan Kroenke, whose net worth is estimated at $8.08 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg, owns the Los Angeles Rams football team and the National Basketball Association’s Nuggets franchise.
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