It was always going to the case that pundits and former players would rip into Arsenal following yet another abysmal performance and that exactly what they have done.
They have criticised the performance of the defence, that we have a soft underbelly, we are cannon fodder and much more, even Mesut Ozil came in for criticism of sorts and he never even played yesterday.
Let’s kick off with Alan Shearer, who had this to say on Match of the Day 2
“How pathetic the back line of Arsenal were, even with 11 men,”
“Jamie Vardy was sensational. It was a constant all afternoon. Two central defenders… This ball travelled 100 yards and still the defenders can’t get anywhere near.
“They should defend better, defend deeper, what does Jamie Vardy want? Every team knows this. I bet he wishes he could play against them every week, they were absolutely hopeless.”
His he wrong? Was the defence pathetic? I think he is right if I am brutally honest, then there is Tony Cascarino who wrote in the Times,
“Arsenal have not really looked like a top-six team over the course of the season,”
“They had that long winning run early in the campaign but even then that was with narrow victories in tight games.
“In the latter stages of his time as manager, Arsene Wenger was accused of having teams with a soft underbelly but this is the softest Arsenal team I’ve seen in a long while — they lack leadership all over the pitch.
Ouch, a soft underbelly? harsh but probably close to the truth and now we can move onto a three of our ex-players starting with Ian Wright who is not convinced qualifying for the Champions League is a good thing.
“But right now, mainly through the fault of other teams, we’re unexpectedly in a position where we could actually qualify for the Champions League, Wright said
“But then I start to think to myself ‘how much do I really even want us to be in it?’
“With the way the team’s playing at the moment and the lack of money he’s going to have to spend…
“It’s worrying how embarrassing it could become if we get there and we keep playing the way we are.”
Then we have Wrights former teammate at Arsenal Kevin Campbell, who reckons we should sell Mesut Ozil to help rebuild the team,
“If it was up to me, he’d be gone,” he said.
“I don’t think he can contribute enough to Arsenal. With the set-up and the way the Premier League is going, I don’t think he does enough.
And on to our final former Gunner, Martin Keown
“It no longer matters who Arsenal play away from home – when the Gunners leave the Emirates, their opponents view them as little more than cannon fodder,” he said.
No one can accuse Keown of fence sitting there and finally on to one of our mouthiest celebrity fans Piers Morgan, who tweeted.
No, I like Emery & he deserves to be judged after 3-4 windows.
But this has been his worst week in charge & our performances have been inexplicably, unacceptably awful when we had such an apparently ‘easy’ run-in.
So there you have, across the board a damning verdict on our team.
I have to ask though, what will they all be saying if we actually win the Europa League and in doing so qualify for the Champions League?