Craig Burley believes that if Arsenal don’t win the Premier League title this season, manager Arsene Wenger must leave his position.
The Gunners have lost their last two league games, to Manchester United and Swansea City. It leaves Arsenal in third place in the table, six points behind leaders Leicester City and three behind rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
Arsenal have not won the Premier League title since the ‘Invincibles’ of 2004 and with 10 games remaining, the current season arguably represents their best opportunity of the last 12 seasons.
But after a relatively strong Christmas period, Wenger’s side have dropped off the pace with Wednesday’s 2-1 home defeat to Swansea another indication of what Burley sees as inexcusable performances.
“They haven’t got the stomach for it, that’s the problem,” the pundit told ESPN.
“If Tottenham or Leicester win the league – and that’s how it’s looking – he’s got to go.
“This club has to take itself in a different direction, because if one of these two teams wins the league surely the Arsenal board is looking at the players they have and the money they’re spending on salaries, which runs into the hundreds and hundreds of thousands, and saying ‘we’re not getting enough out of this group of players.’
“Quite frankly, if they don’t win the league this year – because it isn’t happening next year with all the changes coming in – he [Wenger] has to move aside.”
Arsenal’s struggles reflect a well-established trend for Wenger’s side – they have finished third or fourth in every one of the last 10 seasons, after brief periods of good form beforehand.
In the last few games, there have been growing defensive weaknesses with Gabriel looking off the pace at centre-back after injury.
There are problems at the other end of the pitch too, with Olivier Giroud – the club’s top scorer across all competitions this season, with 18 goals – failing to find the net in the last seven Premier League games. Meanwhile, Alexis Sanchez is goalless since November.
Against Swansea, Arsenal had a poor shot accuracy of 36% – down on their 49% season average.
It won’t get any easier for Wenger’s side either, with the north London derby against Spurs on Saturday, before an FA Cup replay against Hull City.
Those crucial clashes are followed by West Bromwich Albion in the league, and the second leg of their Champions League knockout tie against Barcelona.
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