Harry Redknapp has moved to completely write off Arsenal’s claims of mental strength, whilst claiming they need to beat Chelsea, and come across a miracle, in order to win this season’s Premier League title.
The Gunners gave away a huge chance to close the gap on leaders Chelsea this week when losing to Watford at the Emirates, and now have a nine-point gap to overcome the Blues in the hunt for league glory.
Our players as well as Arsene Wenger has previously described our mentality as being strong, but following our failure to hold focus and win the vital midweek match, Harry Redknapp is questioning that.
He said: ‘I couldn’t put that message out there with their record. They said it after coming back from 3-0 down at Bournemouth to earn a draw at the beginning of last month but for 70 minutes that night, Arsenal were a disgrace.
‘I’d be saying, “Okay, we got out of jail by having a go for 20 minutes but that performance wasn’t good enough.”
‘I wouldn’t be talking about mental strength. I’d be talking about the lack of it.’
Harry then moved to praise the attitude of Alexis Sanchez, describing him as a winner, and claims the rest of the players should be following his lead, but dont.
He added: ‘Alexis Sanchez plays as if his life depends on it all the time but not enough of them follow his lead. He might be a bit disillusioned by the last few weeks as they’ve fallen nine points behind Chelsea at the top of the table.
‘He is a winner — he came off the bench when Arsenal were 3-0 up at Southampton in the FA Cup last weekend because he wants to play every minute.
‘If Arsenal had 11 like him, there wouldn’t be a problem.
‘They’ve got too many who keep hearing the message that “we’ve got great mental strength” without actually showing it or hear they are tired or need rotating and use it as an excuse.’
Are our players showing their mental frailties in recent weeks? Is Alexis the only player fighting for his life?
Pat J