‘We knew they were in trouble’ - Arsenal hero launches attack on stars and ex-boss Wenger
ARSENAL suffered their most damaging defeat of the season on Wednesday night as they lost 4-1 to Chelsea in Baku, missing out on the Europa League trophy and a place in the Champions League.
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Goals from Olivier Giroud, Pedro Rodriguez and two from Eden Hazard left the Gunners facing a third consecutive year of Europa League football.
Unai Emery watched his side be pulled apart in a miserable second-half display, which has left fans and pundits alike seriously questioning the direction in which the North London club are heading.
The Spanish coach will now have to head into the summer transfer window with significantly fewer funds than he’d have hoped for having anticipated a much larger pot to be at his disposal had they qualified for the Champions League.
Emery came so close to a very good first season in English football, after he replaced the 22-year-serving Arsene Wenger, who will forever go down as a club legend.
However, another ex-Gunners star has looked back to the Wenger era as the start of when the defensive issues truly began for the north Londoners.
Charlie Nicholas told Sky Sports News: “I mean, Arsene Wenger - when we were critical of Arsene that was hard to do, but when he started playing Monreal as a centre-back we all knew Arsenal were in trouble.
“I’m sorry I’m kind of isolating these individuals at the moment because they give every ounce that they have but at the end of the day they’re not good enough defensively”.
Arsene Wenger, especially in his final ten years at the club, was renowned for promoting attacking, energetic football and sacrificing the team’s defensive duties more and more as the years went by.
Arsenal news (Image: GETTY)
‘We knew they were in trouble’ - Arsenal hero launches attack on star and ex-boss Wenger (Image: GETTY)
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‘We knew they were in trouble’ - Arsenal hero launches attack on star and ex-boss Wenger (Image: GETTY)
Wenger first introduced Nacho Montreal to the centre-back position in the 2014-15 season when injuries to his defensive line left him very few other options to turn to.
On Wednesday night, Monreal started on the left of a back-three, a system designed to give the side more stability and men at the back.
However, this added protection failed to help Arsenal whatsoever as the conceded four goals in 23 minutes.
Laurent Koscielny and Sokratis Papastathopoulos also played in the defence and did little to improve the situation.
‘We knew they were in trouble’ - Arsenal hero launches attack on star and ex-boss Wenger (Image: GETTY)
It seems Unai Emery’s job is safe for now, and perhaps rightly so, but he has some huge decisions to make this summer over the futures of key stars.
Mesut Ozil, Shkodran Mustafi, Mohamed Elneny, Stephan Lichtsteiner and Granit Xhaka’s futures have all had their futures at the Emirates plunged into doubt with many fans hoping the club will cash in on some assets to increase transfer funds.
With the squad needing serious surgery over summer, it looks like Emery will have to find a way to gain more spending power if he is to go some way to fixing the Arsenal mess in just one summer.