Average Arsenal have little left to play for this season after they limped out of the Europa League in a dramatic injury time defeat.

Arsenal fans returned to the Emirates yesterday like an adult approaching a 1,000-piece puzzle they’d hastily unwrapped at Christmas but not got round to tackling yet.

The Celtic fans having a pop at Rod Stewart last weekend were at least getting into the Christmas spirit nice and early.

Just when a beautiful story, which famously began with a newspaper asking ‘Arsene Who?’ looked to be instead ending with a headline of‘Arsenal Who?’, the Gunners have taken one tiny step torediscovering their identity.

Standing shooting the breeze at half-time on Thursday night, in a humiliatingly half-empty stadium, the like of which we’d not seen since the inauguration of the Gunners new home in 2006, it couldn’t have possibly been more glaringly obvious that Unai Emery’s number was up.

A warning to all those disenchanted Arsenal fans heaving a sigh of relief that the Unai Emery era has drawn to a close: while there are a number of credible candidates who could take his place, I don’t think there is a manager out there possessed of the kind of magic wand which would be needed to cure all the club’s ills overnight. Or, for that matter, any time soon.

Raul Jimenez was on hand to head home a late leveller for Wolves as Arsenal let a lead slip for the third time in a week to increase pressure on head coach Unai Emery.

Former Arsenal defender Nigel Winterburn believes Unai Emery has no choice but to take the captaincy off Granit Xhaka, who should apologise to the fans for his behaviour at the Emirates.

Five things we found out about Unai Emery’s top-four pretenders

Upbeat Emery sees some signs of hope amid the destruction at Anfield

Statistics don’t always tell the whole story but David Luiz has a right to point to them when he turns up at Anfield with new club Arsenal still being billed as the Premier League’s defensive comedy routine up against the country’s best centre-back, Virgil van Dijk.

Unai Emery has told Shkodran Mustafi and Mohamed Elneny to find new clubs in the coming days — for the good of their own careers.

Arsenal director Josh Kroenke believes the club’s activity in the summer transfer market shows they still have an “aura”.

Daniel Storey looks back at the opening weekend of Premier League action.

It’s fair to say that Arsenal have under promised and over delivered in the transfer window

The pressure is on Unai Emery to deliver at Arsenal this season. Failure to finish in the top four or win a trophy could signal an abrupt end for Arsene Wenger’s successor at London’s biggest club. Wenger’s early success and general brilliance ultimately afforded him 22 years running football affairs so replacing him was always going to be a challenge despite fortunes waning towards the end of his reign.

So that’s Wednesday nearly wrapped up. Here’s some of the stories we published on irishexaminer.com today which we hope will help you make sense of it all this evening.

Maurizio Sarri stormed out of training on the eve of Chelsea’s Europa League final against Arsenal in Baku.

Hendrick’s sweet volley handed Burnley the lead against the run of play, Chelsea failing to clear a corner.

If reports of Manchester City’s demise in the title race before Christmas were premature then the ones about the long-term future of Maurizio Sarri as Chelsea manager may be proven completely accurate in the coming weeks.

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1

Eden Hazard was excused from Chelsea’s Europa League trip to PAOK after twice telling Maurizio Sarri he was tired.

Alex Iwobi scored the winning penalty for Arsenal as they defeated Chelsea 6-5 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in front of a crowd of 46,000 people at the Aviva Stadium.

"We have two big problems."

It was when Conte saw the shirt that he stopped smiling.

Watford 4 Chelsea 1: Antonio Conte’s future as Chelsea boss was cast into further doubt as his 10 men were thrashed 4-1 by Watford last night.

Antonio Conte's future as Chelsea boss was cast into further doubt as his 10-men were thrashed 4-1 by Watford in the Premier League.

The waters have been muddied by Chelsea's emerging interest in Olivier Giroud.

Chelsea 3 Newcastle United 0: The Sunday newspapers may have made difficult reading for Chelsea and their Italian manager but the chants of ‘Antonio, Antonio’ ringing around Stamford Bridge during a routine 3-0 FA Cup fourth round victory over Newcastle suggest it is too early to write off Antonio Conte’s future in west London just yet. Transfer deadline day, mind you, looks likely to provide a better barometer.

Michy Batshuayi scored twice as Chelsea marched on in the FA Cup with a 3-0 win over Newcastle at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte does not want unhappy players bringing down the morale of the squad.

The January transfer window has not yet opened and already a huge deal has been agreed, with Virgil van Dijk heading from Southampton to Liverpool for what is understood to be £75million, the highest price ever paid for a defender.

Striker Alvaro Morata is suspended but left wing-back Marcos Alonso is back from a ban when Chelsea play at Everton.

Antonio Conte hopes Andreas Christensen can have as successful a career with Chelsea as John Terry.

David Luiz's future makes the papers for a second day in a row.

Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte is frustrated by those questioning his honesty over the fitness of David Luiz.

What's being said online and in the papers.

Even the most pessimistic of Fantasy Premier League pundits never thought it would get this bad.