Gabi Agbonlahor has claimed that Mikel Arteta should be sacked ‘straight away’ if his Arsenal side fails to beat Norwich City after the international break.
The Gunners have started the Premier League campaign in the worst possible fashion with two consecutive 2-0 losses at the hands of Chelsea and Brentford, and have the daunting prospect of taking on league champions Manchester City at the Etihad at the weekend.
We do have a EFL Cup clash against West Brom in between, but all the focus will be on our league results thus far.
While our loss to Champions League winners Chelsea shouldn’t necessarily be the staple for judgement given the way they have been playing since Thomas Tuchel took over the helm, Agbonlahor insists that he should be sacked if he doesn’t turn the club’s form around with a win when they take on Norwich after the international break.
“It’s very difficult, you’re playing against a really good Chelsea side so you can’t really judge Arsenal off that game,” Gabi told the Football Insider.
“They were never going to win that game. There was a total difference in class, aggression and power.
“You’ve got to wait until after the international break to start judging Arsenal. Last season was very tough as well.
“Arsenal fans wanted to see fight and they showed that against Chelsea. They didn’t capitulate, they kept it down to 2-0. I think they need a bit of time.
“The next two games, after Man City, the Arsenal board will think ‘We need maximum points from those games.’. It’s as simple as that, there are no excuses then.
“If you come out with losses from Chelsea and Man City then draw or lose to Norwich… I’d sack him straight after the game if they lost to Norwich.
“That would just show it’s going to be a disaster season if they don’t stop the rot. It will be a massive game and I’m sure Arsenal would get it done in that game.”
I find it hard to defend Arteta at present, although he has had to deal with a number of key absences in our opening fixtures, but there simply will be no excuse for losing to Norwich, especially with all of the club’s transfer business in place at that point.
Could the club really accept starting the season with four straight losses and not make the manager accountable?
Patrick