Arsenal forward Theo Walcott has insisted that it’s up to the players to fight to save Arsene Wenger’s job after their embarrassing loss to Bayern Munich.
The Gunners crashed out of the Champions League with a 10-2 aggregate scoreline against the German giants, heaping more pressure on Wenger with some supporters protesting against him prior to kick-off.
As the 67-year-old now faces the very real prospect of being forced to walk away with results simply not good enough, it remains to be seen if things pick up between now and the end of the season and if Arsenal can salvage something from their campaign.
That still won’t be enough for some who are desperate for change, and Walcott has issued a rallying cry for the Arsenal squad to step up and deliver in the coming weeks.
“He will take this on himself but us players need to look at ourselves. The manager has been taking a lot of flak in recent weeks and us players have been accepting it, but we can’t,” he is quoted as saying by the Evening Standard.
“We need to take the pressure off the manager and that will happen by performances. Who knows what the manager will do? Players just want to play football for this club and do well for the manager.”
While Wenger may still have the backing of the dressing room, his friends on the outside are dwindling in numbers as fans continue to face the reality that they will likely be left empty-handed again this season with a fight for a top four finish again on their hands.
Meanwhile, Hector Bellerin has apologised to the supporters for their capitulation against Bayern, as despite a spirited first half, the Gunners crumbled after the hour mark and were made to look like amateurs in defence.
“We know we’ve got the players and the potential to do well, we just need to play every game the same way that we started today, he said, as per The Mirror. “If we play that kind of football, we can be up there. We have to say sorry to the fans because we want to do better than that.”
“The whole team is behind the manager. He’s the one who has made the team work.”