Unai Emery has played down rumours that head of recruitment Sven Mislintat is set to leave Arsenal and insists that they have been working ‘normally’ this January. Arsenal are actively searching for a technical director and their decision to overlook Mislintat for the position has reportedly pushed the 46-year-old towards the exit door at the Emirates. Mislintat left Borussia Dortmund to join the Gunners in November 2017 and Bayern Munich are understood to be interested in luring the German back to the Bundesliga. While Emery admits he ‘doesn’t know’ if there is any truth to the rumours, he claims he’s been in regular contact with Mislintat in recent weeks.
Asked about the reports surrounding Mislintat, Emery replied: ‘I was working with him the last two weeks we had two or three meetings together. ‘We are working normally. I don’t know other issues. I don’t know [if he’s leaving]. ‘My relationship about transfers is we’ve been speaking about that for the last 2 or 3 weeks.’
Arsenal have the chance to close the gap on fourth-placed Chelsea this weekend and Emery is expecting a ‘difficult’ match at the Emirates. The Spaniard said: ‘I want to see the victory first. We are doing two different performances at home and away. ‘We want to find the balance with two moments. We are going to go game by game and the first is Saturday. At home I think we are doing very big matches with a big confidence with our supporters.
‘Chelsea will be a difficult, tough match. It’ll be a good test for us. ‘We wanted to take this match with three points more in the table but our defeat in West Ham doesn’t give us this possibility. ‘Saturday I think I am looking for us to play this match well. I want to see my team playing with a good performance, showing our supporters we can do more and better than we are doing away.’
