Arsenal boss Unai Emery pleads for patience after Leicester loss leaves top four hopes in doubt

Arsenal boss Unai Emery pleaded for patience with his "young squad" after a 2-0 defeat to Leicester City dealt a blow to their top-four hopes.

Second-half strikes from Jamie Vardy and James Maddison handed the high-flying Foxes a deserved victory, with Brendan Rodgers' side climbing to second.

The Spaniard has come under-fire following a series of poor results, including draws at home to Crystal Palace and Wolves.

The latest result means Arsenal have now won just once in their last seven games in all competitions.

But Emery claimed he was happy with his side's performance despite extending their winless run on the road to five games.

"I think we worked and showed good fight in our gameplan," he told Sky Sports.

"We were consistent in our work rate. The first half was equal and we had chances to score. We conceded from then but we did good in the first half, the second half also.

"The players worked with very good attitude and they tried. We were in the match. If we scored the first goal, we could control it. We didn't do that and they did. The attitude was good and this is encouraging for the next match."

Arsenal drop to sixth in the Premier League after Sheffield United drew at Tottenham, and the north London side are now nine points adrift of fourth-placed Chelsea.

Asked whether his side can catch their top-four rivals, Emery believes that patience with his young squad will eventually pay off.

"We need to be consistent in the remaining 26 matches," he added. "We are some distance behind Chelsea but we need to take confidence from our performance. We are going to try [to finish in the top four]. We need to try to recover the points.

"For us, we see it's a long time and a long season with 38 matches. Little by little, we will win points after this match, so we keep going."

When asked if he still retained the board's backing, Emery bluntly replied: "Yes."

"With time [it will happen]. We have young players. We know we are in our way, we are very ambitious in our targets. But we know we need time.

"We had circumstances off the field that didn't help us to get results. But with consistency we can do it. The most important thing is to be ambitious... we have to stand up and show our character."

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