Carlton Palmer claims that Arsenal have lost their identity following the departure of Arsene Wenger, and that teams no longer fear coming up against their side.
The Frenchman left the club in 2018, and we have so far struggled under an 18-month reign under Unai Emery where he threatened to keep us challenging, before Mikel Arteta took over to give us a glimmer of hope, before the owners decided to back the new setup substantially.
While there are rumours of interest in Antonio Conte, the reality is that the owners will continue to back their man, and it would take a major run of bad form for them to reconsider that stance.
Carlton Palmer believes that we have even lost our ‘identity’, and even moved to claim that they are viewed as an ‘easy touch’.
“Even under Arsene Wenger, they had that identity,” Palmer told the Football FanCast. “You know when you went to Highbury or the Emirates to play against Arsenal, first and foremost, you knew you were in for a tough game. I think people look at Arsenal now and see it as an easy touch.
“If you go and play against Arsenal and get up against them and be physical against them, you’ve got to be careful because they’ve got good players who can play on the ball but not a complete unit. You look at it, you think, ‘I fancy my chances here’. Before, you used to go to Arsenal and you knew you had to be at your very best, and that was just to get out of there without being turned over big time.”
We’ve had a rocky start to the new season, and with a number of new players having had little time to settle in just yet, but we definitely need an upturn in fortunes sooner rather than later…
Patrick