From Arsene Wenger to Emery to Ljunberg to Arteta! Where has it gone wrong for Arsenal

The gunners endured another horrid afternoon at Brighton as the home side come from behind to snatch all three points.


On the back of their mid-week 3-0 loss to Manchester City, the gunners conceded a late winner to Brighton who have not win in the league since the turn of the year.

The London club started the match brightly but lost goalkeeper Bernd Leno to injury in the 36th minute when he collided into striker Neal Maupay and had to be carried off on a stretcher.

Pepe gave Arsenal the lead in the 68th minute but Lewis Dunk equalises for Brighton seven minutes later before Maupay ensures tmThe Gunners leave empty handed.

The injury to Leno added to the growing list of casualties at the club as Granit Xhaka and Pablo Mari also had to leave the pitch in mid-week loss at the Ethiad.

The club have always had injury problems for long, with players always looking fragile, going down holding their body and ready to leave the pitch whenever they concede almost the slightest tackle.


Abou Diaby, Eduardo Da Silva, Thomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere to name but a few are players with great potentials that represented the club but never live up to the hype due to injuries.

Could it be the incompetence of the medical team at the club, or lack of good fitness experts to handle their fitness trainings as anytime the gunners take to the pitch, there's always a high possibility of a player coming off injured.

Over 80% of players from the current squad have missed games this season due to injuries, the same issue which always haunt the club in previous seasons.

Another problem at the club is scouting players. They signed Shkodran Mustafi in the summer of 2016 from Valencia for £35m when he has just played two seasons in the Spanish top flight.

However, there are Premier League proven defenders which the gunners could sign but Arsene Wenger prefers the German who has not been a reliable defender for the club since his move.


Arsene Wenger also signed Yaya Sanogo in place of Antonie Griezmann among other big mistakes made by the club in scouting the right players in the transfer market.

The recent one is bringing in David Luiz, who was the weak link in the Chelsea defense in the 2018-19 season to fix their defensive crisis.

Moreso, since the later days of Arsène Wenger at Arsenal, The Gunners have no stable starting XI. After almost three months spent on lockdown and having almost a fully fit squad, the Arsenal faithfuls were excited to know what the lineup will look like against Manchester City.

To their disappointment, Arteta comes up with a squad more of the academy players, leaving Mesut Özil out of the squad with Nicolas Pepe, Alexander Lacazette, Dani Ceballos all on the bench.

Despite being the club's record signing, Nicolas Pepe has started just 18 of his 25 league appearances for the gunners this season and started most of the cup matches on the bench.

His five goals and six assists in the league for the club is bettered by only Pierre-Emrick Aubameyang yet the Ivorian is not a guaranteed starter.


Gabriel Martinelli is also another victim at the club, the Brazilian has not feature since the restart having had a hand in 14goals (10goals, 4assists) in 26 appearances, including as a substitute for the club in his debut season.

The problem of not knowing the best players to make up the starting XI is always a distraction in a team but the manager has the responsiblility to understand how to best utilize the ability of the players, but the problem seems to persist with The Gunners even under different managers.

Club captain and top scorer Pierre-Emrick Aubameyang is yet to sign a contract extension and his current contract which runs out at the end of next summer.

As the former Dortmund striker has stated that this (signing an extension at Arsenal) is the biggest decision of his career, he will surely not be convinced with the project at Arsenal and might be looking to move elsewhere in the summer.

Arsneal have been in the same situation in the past. Players like Robin Van Persie, Samir Nasri, Alexis Sanchez and among others, who left the club due to the lack of ambition.



Even after several years, the same problems always persist for the club and it could be the start of more disaster to come for them.

They play Wolverhampton Wonderers, Leicester City, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool in their next four premier league games. They will also play Sheffield United in the FA Cup.

Whatever the problem at Arsenal is, it is better they have it solved if they have the vision to restore the club to it's former glory.


Afolabi Kehinde Hassan

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