With Arsenal still woefully underperforming in the Premier League in 2020/21, Mikel Arteta will surely be feeling the pressure by now.
The Spaniard has been bullish in recent press conferences and thrown down the gauntlet to his players to see how they respond.
According to one club legend, the manager will be given time to turn things around, however.
“I think Arteta will definitely get the time to turn the current form around,” Michael Thomas told CaughtOffside.
“The squad’s morale is clearly very low, but they need to stick together and fight for one another.”
Clearly, the Gunners have had a problem with scoring goals, and Thomas was in no doubt what needs to happen in January in order for the issue to be solved.
“Not only are they not scoring, but they’re not creating anything clear cut,” he continued.
“I’m not seeing anyone play through the lines and forcing the opposition to think. It is all sideways.
“Ozil has got to come back in or reinforcements in January are a top priority.”
Against Everton, Yerry Mina was allowed to run right across the area to power home a header, and the defender wasn’t tracked on any part of his run.
“It’s always difficult when you’re doing half zonal, half man-mark,” Thomas added.
“I prefer to have my man and make sure even if he does get his head to it, he’s under enough pressure that it shouldn’t be going in.
“Yerry Mina is a big man and Arsenal should’ve been smarter when deciding how they were going to deal with him.”
With the winter transfer window just around the corner the players that Arteta buys and sells will arguably author the rest of his team’s season, but Thomas isn’t happy with the recruitment at the club at this point.
“I would say in recent years they haven’t had a direction in the type of players they are bringing to the club,” he said.
“They have had too many people giving their views and it’s clearly not working. That being said, there are some very experienced players in the squad and hungry young ones that need to be showing why they are at a club like Arsenal.”