Arsenal director Josh Kroenke admits Unai Emery's dismissal has been "weeks" in the works.

Emery was relieved of his duties on Friday morning following a run of seven games without a win.

"Like all of our fans and supporters around the globe, we've been concerned about our recent string of performances," Josh Kroenke told Arsenal's website.

We wanted to support Unai and his staff until we decided it was time to make a change and ultimately we came to that decision over the last several weeks as a group between myself, Raul, Vinai and (technical director) Edu."

Kroenke praised Emery's work ethic but insisted the change was made in the hope of reaching their goals for the campaign with caretaker Freddie Ljungberg at the helm.

"Very difficult," he replied, when asked how hard the decision to sack Emery had been.

"First and foremost Unai is a good man, someone that we all respect very much. His work ethic on a daily basis between him and his staff was fantastic.

"Ultimately we started to fall short of several goals that we set. We still feel that we can achieve those goals this season, which is why we decided to make the change now."