Advertisement

Arsenal 'in danger of having a loser image' if they don't spend, warns former Gunner Emmanuel Petit

Double delight: Petit won the Premier League and FA Cup with Arsenal in 1998: Getty Images
Double delight: Petit won the Premier League and FA Cup with Arsenal in 1998: Getty Images

Emmanuel Petit believes his former club Arsenal are “in danger of having a loser image” after their recent struggles.

Arsene Wenger head into Saturday’s FA Cup Final against Chelsea knowing that only victory over the champions will give this season any semblance of success after Arsenal finished outside the top four for the first time in his reign.

Crisis engulfed Arsenal as they slipped away from the Champions League places in the early months of 2017 and the future of both their manager, whose contract expires in the coming weeks, and Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, both of whom can leave for nothing next summer.

Speaking after Sunday’s 3-1 win over Everton Wenger insisted Arsenal only needed one or two “top quality” signings to compete for the Premier League title but Petit’s outlook was far bleaker.

“If Arsenal want to be competitive next season, they need to spend money,” Petit, who won the Double under Wenger in 1998, told bwin.

“They are in danger of having a loser image.

“Look at the academy. Ten years ago you had [Kieran] Gibbs, [Jack] Wilshere and others coming through the academy and that’s not happening any more. If you don’t have them coming through, you have to spend money. They need experienced, international players with winning mentalities.

“You need players like attack dogs – look at Madrid. They have [Sergio] Ramos, Casemiro – they are the fighting dogs on the team and then you have the technical players. At Arsenal, only [Laurent] Koscielny is going to fight to get the ball.

“At Arsenal, you can’t rely on [Granit] Xhaka and [Francis] Coquelin to do it all. You need a team-mate who will look you in the eye and scream at you and say ‘this is Arsenal, that is not good enough’. Look at [Cristiano] Ronaldo at Real Madrid, he has such a winning mentality and he is an example to others.”

Arsenal’s preparations for the FA Cup Final were mired by their failure to qualify for the Champions League on the final day of the season, the win over Everton counting for naught as Liverpool and Manchester City also won.

That victory came at quite a cost though, with Koscielny picking up a red card that rules him out of the Wembley match whilst Gabriel injured his medial knee ligaments and will be out for six to eight weeks. Shkodran Mustafi is also a doubt as he battles to shake off an illness.

Petit, who also played for Chelsea between 2001 and 2004, added: “I hope that Arsenal win but I am not sure now with Koscielny being out with his red card and being suspended. I don’t know about Sanchez’s injury either.

“After the game the players and the managers will have been disappointed to have finished just the one point behind Liverpool and missed out on the Champions League, so mentally and psychologically it’s not been a good day for Arsenal. It’s not the best way to prepare for an FA Cup Final just six days later.

“It’s hard for Arsenal as Chelsea will have been celebrating winning the title and they will want to confirm the Double. It was the last game for John Terry as well – it’s been sunshine couple of days for Chelsea and clouds for Arsenal so it’s not the best preparation.”