- Arsenal held a players only meeting this week amid ongoing struggles
- Report claims passionate team-talk got too much for one star
- It remains to be seen if they can turn things around before end of the season
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Arsenal are going through an extremely difficult period, and it sounds as though the management, squad and supporters need something major to lift spirits.
After losing to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final last weekend, the Gunners slipped to another 3-0 defeat at the hands of Pep Guardiola’s side in the Premier League on Thursday night.
That leaves them 10 points adrift of fourth-placed Tottenham with 10 games remaining this season, while they’ll have to go through AC Milan in the Europa League to try and get a seat at Europe’s top table next season.
In turn, the picture is looking pretty bleak for the Arsenal faithful right now, and The Guardian have reported on how an unnamed tearful Arsenal star made a passionate team-talk this week in a players meeting, revealing that his children had asked him why there were doing so badly.
It’s unclear how the Guardian have obtained the details, but given their standing, it’s highly unlikely that they’ve run the story without any truth in it.
The report offers insight into the mood within the current squad, and it’s not good. On one hand, it could be argued that at least it shows that the passion and desire is there, but something simply isn’t working.
Whether it’s Arsene Wenger’s fault, the board’s fault for not acting or the players just not being good enough to compete with the top clubs, it could even be argued that it’s a combination of everything at Arsenal right now and big changes are needed to rectify the situation.
Wenger has a contract until the summer of 2019, and having shown no indication of being willing to step away in the aftermath of the latest defeat, instead being defiant about his position, it remains to be seen what happens between now and the end of the campaign and whether it’s enough to finally end his reign having been in charge since 1996.
It really doesn’t sound as though there’s a good atmosphere within the dressing room right now, and with a trip to Brighton on Sunday before travelling to Italy to face Milan in the first leg of their last-16 tie, it may yet get even worse for the Gunners.