Arsenal legend Ian Wright has voiced his despair over his former side’s recent run of form, which has seen the league leaders leave the door ajar for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
Speaking prior to Arsenal’s qualification through to the Champions League semi-final after their 1-0 aggregate victory over Sporting Lisbon on Wednesday night – a drab stalemate in the second leg at the Emirates – Wright claimed that the team’s recent performances are ‘killing’ him.
On the weekend Arsenal were beaten 2-1 at home to Bournemouth, opening the door to City who they play at the weekend at the Etihad – and who have a game in hand against Crystal Palace. If City were to win both of those games, then Guardiola’s side would equal Arsenal’s points tally at the top of the table.
Joined by Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Roy Keane on The Overlap podcast, Wright said: ‘Watching the games, it hurts. There’s a pain that’s hurting me. It’s killing me that I can’t feel it. I’ve put so much, invested so much into the manager, the team, the players, everything.
‘And they’ve got to a place again and you are just seeing it falling away, you’re seeing players making mistakes.’
Keane suggested Wright may be overreacting, noting Arsenal still hold a six-point lead at the top of the table. He said: ‘It’s not falling away yet. They’re top of the table. They’re nervous, they look edgy, but they have to get through that.
‘Did you think it was going to be plain sailing? They’ve been nervous for six months?’
Wright replied: ‘I didn’t expect it to be plain sailing Roy, because it’s never plain sailing. Even the team that has momentum still has to get it done.
‘But when you are at the top of the league and you have to beat teams, I’m not seeing anything.
‘You’re watching the boys, you’re watching the way we play, which honestly I don’t like but I’m just taking it to get over the line.
‘We’re in a position that we’ve been in three times before. Why should I say to people that come up to me “Don’t worry, have faith”?
‘We haven’t played any kind of football to beat a team in a way where (I can say that). We can’t get through the nervousness.’
Neville then asks Wright – who won the Premier League with Arsenal in 1997-98, their first in six years – to send a message to the Arsenal players as someone with success in the competition.
‘I believe that how we’re playing now, and however the manager wants you to play, once you get on the pitch, you have to take a certain responsibility for yourself because it’s failing right now.’
Arsenal had the chance to pile a huge amount of pressure on City by beating Bournemouth to go 12 points clear with only six games left to go and quieten the critics after back-to-back defeats in the League Cup final and FA Cup by City and Southampton respectively.
Instead, they find themselves looking over their shoulder as Guardiola’s side continue their rampant form, including despatching Chelsea with a 3-0 victory at the weekend. They have lost just one game in their last 19 in the top-flight.
To add to Arsenal’s nervousness before the crunch tie, Noni Madueke was forced off the pitch with an injury during the clash with Sporting in the 63rd minute after he was involved in a heavy collision with Pedro Goncalves.
Mikel Arteta will be sweating on the fitness of the winger, after Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori all missed Wednesday’s game through injury having also been omitted from the defeat by Bournemouth.
