An extraordinary chain of events at Leicester City on Sunday night culminated in the club issuing a statement to confirm that Nigel Pearson would remain in charge for the game at Arsenal, hours after the manager had been led to believe that he was losing his job.

Confusion reigned at the King Power Stadium after reports started to emerge early in the evening that Pearson had been relieved of his duties 24 hours after the 1-0 defeat at home against Crystal Palace – a match in which the Leicester manager had become embroiled in a bizarre touchline incident with James McArthur.

It is understood that Pearson thought that he had gone at one point, and other staff at the club also believed that to be the case, only for the 51-year-old to be granted a reprieve later in the day. After four hours of silence, during which the players were totally in the dark as to what was going on, Leicester issued a statement saying that the club “would like to clarify its position relative to its manager” and implied that Pearson’s future had never been in doubt.

“Contrary to media speculation on Sunday evening, Nigel remains the club’s first-team manager,” the statement said. “Reports to the contrary are inaccurate and without foundation. Nigel, his staff and the first-team squad are entirely focused on Tuesday night’s trip to Arsenal and our continued efforts to secure our position in the Barclays Premier League.”

It was a strange series of events to say the least, almost farcical, and that statement offered little explanation for what had gone on earlier in the day and why it had taken so long to confirm whether Pearson was staying or going. Pearson, make no mistake, had thought his time at the King Power Stadium was up.

It is understood that the 51-year-old was summoned to talks on the back of the Palace defeat, which left Leicester anchored to the foot of the table and, following Burnley’s 2-2 draw at home against West Bromwich Albion on Sunday, four points adrift of safety. News then started to filter through that Pearson’s second spell in charge at the King Power Stadium had come to an end, with the team’s poor form, allied to that incident with McArthur, in which the manager appeared to have his hands around the Palace midfielder’s neck at one point, prompting the board to decide to make a change.

While the McArthur flashpoint is unlikely to bring a Football Association charge, it is the second time in the space of a couple of months that Pearson has got into trouble in his technical area – in December he was fined £10,000 by the governing body and given a one-match ban after an angry verbal exchange with a Leicester supporter – and it is understood that the board took a dim view of the latest indiscretion.

For the moment it is unclear whether Pearson has the job until the end of the season or if this is simply a stay of execution. Either way the task of climbing away from the foot of the table looks a thankless one. After facing Arsenal at the Emirates, three of Leicester’s next four league matches see them visit Everton, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

Pearson is due to face the media to preview the Arsenal game on Mondayafternoon, after training a first-team squad that had started to think that they would be coming under new management. It remains to be seen whether he will shed any light on exactly what went on behind closed doors and why it took the club so long to bring clarity to the situation.