Alan Shearer feels this Arsenal team is unrecognisable from the ones Arsene Wenger used to produce.
Wenger’s first 10 years in north London saw Arsenal win three Premier League titles, four FA Cups and reach the Champions League final. The second decade, however, has brought just two FA Cups.
The Gunners finished second in the table last season and were billed as potential challengers in 2016/17, but their 3-1 hammering at the hands of Chelsea on Saturday means they are now 12 points behind the league leaders.
Their defeat at Stamford Bridge was characterised by a lack of fight — they seemed to give up after conceding the first goal — and Shearer feels this current crop is the one of Arsenal’s “softest” ever sides.
“Arsene Wenger remains, yet the Arsenal DNA he had between 1997 and 2005 has been totally lost over the last decade,” Shearer wrote in his column for The Sun.
“That is what frustrates the fans, that a manager who gave them so much and put out such great teams can now be in charge of one of the softest sides in the club’s history.
“One that rolls over when the going gets tough.
“One that raises hopes one week and shatters them the next. A side that can’t compete over a season. Players who simply don’t work hard enough to match Watford and more starkly Chelsea, who simply bullied them off the park.”
Speaking after the game, Wenger said: “I’m not subdued. I’m disappointed and angry because we lost a very big game. But I’m not subdued. The result is there and we certainly have a big wait in the race for the championship.
“We have shown in the past that we can recover from that. That defeat against Watford had bigger consequences, maybe, than expected.
“We lacked a little bit what makes our game efficient. In the final third we didn’t look dangerous enough. That was difficult to watch from upstairs.”
[Mirror UK]
