Rio Ferdinand says Arsenal’s current troubles are down to their unsettled dressing room and he has urged Mikel Arteta to sort it out.
The Gunners have hit rock bottom in recent weeks after losing three consecutive games.
They have lost seven of their opening 12 league games and it seems that they simply cannot get back to form now.
Arteta has led the club to win the FA Cup and the Community Shield this year, but their current run of form is threatening to move them into the relegation zone.
Arteta has had to deal with other issues like axing Mesut Ozil and some other players, and Ferdinand thinks that it is affecting the team.
Ferdinand reckons that if the team was winning, no one would question Arteta’s decision making, but now that the team is struggling, he has to get rid of the unwanted players or reintegrate them.
‘I just think they’re lacking in harmony,’ Ferdinand told his YouTube channel FIVE.
‘We’ve seen the new signing, [William] Saliba, talking to [Matteo] Guendouzi on social media. And obviously, Mesut Ozil is on the sidelines as well.
‘Mikel Arteta came in and bang, set my stool out this is what is going on and these players aren’t playing.’
‘Now, if you do that and you are winning like he was earlier on in the season, then you don’t hear anything,’ he added. ‘You don’t hear any murmurs or mutterings behind the scenes from any players because you cannot say anything.
‘Once that changes and you start losing games and pressure starts mounting. Then the people that aren’t playing start being a part of the group that maybe affects the harmony.
‘That’s why you either have to get rid of them and get them out of the building. Or you have got to keep that door ajar and let them know there’s an opportunity, so they don’t become bitter and they don’t become people that want to talk in the media.
‘I think it’s down to Arteta to handle that. He has to handle the dilemmas of the changing rooms.’