Granit Xhaka revealed the Arsenal dressing room was stunned into silence after a calamitous collapse saw the team ship four goals in a dismal second half on their way to defeat in the Europa League final against Chelsea.
Xhaka said: 'He is disappointed of course. Him, the players, nobody speaks in the dressing room.
'We opened the game too fast in the second half. I think we have Chelsea over 60, 70 minutes, good in our hands. We have chances as well but we make too many mistakes.
'After the Premier League, we had a second chance to come back and go to the Champions League but if you don't take your chances, you will stay in the Europa League. Today was a big chance for us, we didn't take it.'
An emotional Xhaka described it as one of the most painful nights of his Arsenal career and conceded he cannot bear to watch back a repeat of the game.
'No,' he grimaced. 'It is finished.'
At the final whistle, Emery shook hands with his counterpart Sarri but appeared shell-shocked by his side's implosion. He stood rooted to one spot in his dugout for close to 10 minutes and his players sank to their haunches on the field.
Curiously, when asked whether Emery had taken the club forwards in his first season in charge, Xhaka said: 'I don't know. I'm not the right person to give you an answer about this.'
Xhaka also said 'maybe' when asked whether he fears his team-mates will he tempted by offers from Champions League clubs.
Questioned as to whether he personally wished to remain, Xhaka was hardly enthusiastic: 'Me? I have a contract here.'
This latest setback will pose renewed questions of Arsenal's mentality. Petr Cech, who played his final game in professional football, had criticised Arsenal's mentality in the lead-up to the game. He argued that the environment at former club Chelsea was more demanding, where the atmosphere would be funereal after losing a game.
Xhaka insisted the players were hurt by this defeat but sadness rather than confrontation gripped the dressing room. He said: 'If you smile after this game... We know what we played. We know we lost the game. It is not about shouting. It is not about shouting everything if we lose.
'We are hungry. Maybe we don't show each other we are hungry but inside we have a lot of players who are hungry if we lose.'
acteman
60
Have Arsenal ever had a worst first choice midfielder than Xhaka? Absolutely useless. There's some strange perception that he has a good long shot but he must have scored about 4 long range goals in his time at Arsenal. Surely the management must see what the fans can see. Xhaka, Mustafi, Ozil, Mkhitaryan and Iwobi are just useless. Actually, they probably do but don't have the funds to replace them.
Derobect
56
Arsenal may have reached the Final, but in general terms they are rarely a side worth watching. For me, Gunners have slipped backwards. Not the sole fault of the Manager, the owners must be Spurs fans, having failed to invest in a competitive manner, Manager Emery appears to be set on playing Ozil in a different manner, than Germany used to. He is still a highly gifted performer, but so often overlooked by the coach. No investment for the next season and they could well falter and struggle.
boxingei
52
This is the same Granit Xhaka that claims to be a natural leader and defended Mesut Ozil's performance, the man's opinions are questionable.
DylGunner
51
Xhaka, ppl kept saying he is good but I'll tell you now he's not good enough. maybe as a squad player but if he's starting in your midfield it just shows how weak your team is. Emery, I've not been impressed with all season, even when we were on the 22 game unbeaten streak I still wasn't impressed because I saw that we were more lucky than anything, it wasn't like we turned the corner in terms of our overall football play, the defense as always been bad, thought that might have been the 1st thing he addressed but no, same old Arsenal as always, and also a reoccurrence is when there's a injury to a key player such as Holding, Ramsey etc.. that's pretty much it, season over, we don't have enough depth to compete and it's sad that as a coach you don't know your team. I give Emery one more year to show us something and judging by this season I don't think there's much he can show, because I've seen him with his back against the wall and his actions hasn't been good enough, so I'll go on record now and say it get Simeone in or Allegri.
irony
49
The manager is doing the best he can with a mediocre squad. The people at fault are those above who have refused to invest properly in Arsenal for almost a decade.
Elsa98
48
Unai emery is the right man to lead arsenal and must be given a fair chance to reverse their failure.💪🏻
davidlungu
45
When our defence is leaking goals, what is our strikers doing.... they should be taking every opportunity and bang in those goals...then we would be winning 3-2, 5-4, 2-1 etc.... SOLUTION.....Clean-out excercise from back to front removing waste material and replace with quality but inexpensive players....this calls for efficient, smart and quick action during this window.... KROENKE should also dig deeper in his pocket or else Arsenal shall drop further down the EPL LADDER
kidding
28
Can't blame Emery for last night.. As a neutral, Chelsea turned up, Arsenal didn't... Arsenal's players didn't look up for it and that was a collective apart from Czeh. Emery got out there early, prepped the team well but he shouldnt have to motivate players for a European final.. that's down to the players..