Kieran Tierney says it's down to players on pitch to kick-start Arsenal and backs Unai Emery

Kieran Tierney has said it is down to the players on the pitch to fix Arsenal’s ongoing problems as he backed Unai Emery to guide the team out of their current slump.

Arsenal surrendered a lead for the fourth consecutive match in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Vitoria SC in the Europa League, conceding a stoppage-time equaliser barely 10 minutes after Shkodran Mustafi’s opener.

Emery’s side have now gone four matches without a win during a difficult few weeks in which Granit Xhaka has been stripped of the captaincy following his remarkable outburst towards his own supporters.

The disappointing run of results has increased the pressure on Emery, who takes his side to face Leicester City this weekend, but Tierney has insisted the responsibility of reversing their slide lies with the squad as he praised the head coach for making him a better player.

“It is up to us as players to correct it on the pitch,” said Tierney, who joined Arsenal from Celtic this summer. “For me, he [Emery] has been brilliant since I have come in. I have learned a lot every day, playing with great players.

“Everybody in the changing room has belief in each other and the manager. He likes to keep the ball, pass the ball with a possession-type game and for me I am just learning and working on my technique with him. I am working on passing and crossing — everything in general.”

Tierney added that Arsenal must find a way to prevent the late goals that have hindered their progress so dramatically in recent weeks.

“It is something we are going to need to work on as a team and on the training field as well,” he said. “It is something we will be looking to correct of course, but we are in a process and just getting there. For me coming in it is hard, but it is something we are all going to work on 100 per cent and we need to get out of our game.

“If we knew what it was we would fix the problem. But it is something that we will be looking to correct. It happens. Teams have bad spells, they go through bad spells  — but it is just something we need to correct and that’s something we are looking to do.”

Tierney is still in the process of rebuilding his fitness after undergoing double hernia surgery in the summer and the left-back has not been included in the Scotland squad following a request from Arsenal.

Steve Clarke, the Scotland manager, said this week that Tierney had an “ongoing issue” but it is understood that his absence from the national team is part of an agreed rehabilitation process rather than the result of a lingering injury.

“They [Scotland] understand,” Tierney said. “Of course you want to play for your national team, but you need to do what is best for your career long term. Wednesday night was my second game in five days so near the end I was tiring.

“It is probably the right decision as now I am going into the international break knowing I am getting a rest and recovery, because since my operation the load has gone up, up and up. To get a rest would be beneficial and hopefully for the next camp I’m ready.”