After yet another defeat for Arsenal, this time to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup, the knives were out for Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners are going through a torrid patch of poor form at present, and whatever the Spaniard is trying to do to get them out of their funk, it doesn’t appear to be working.
Sky Sports pundit, Jamie Redknapp, believes that Arteta’s players are to blame for badly letting their manager down.
“People are saying, ‘is he going to lose his job?’, losing 4-1 at home is not ideal. Last win they had was the 1st November against Manchester United,” he said on Sky Sports, cited by the Daily Express.
“In his defence, that day, I remember doing the game and I thought, ‘they could be on to something pretty special here’.
“We saw a very talented midfield player in Partey, he looked exceptional. The way they set up, I thought, they might be good.
“Then, all of a sudden, things have gone and they are now devoid of confidence.
“Of course, you could go and sack the manager, but the bigger problem is there’s a group of players there, there’s only three or four that if you were the manager coming in you’d say, ‘I can trust those players’.
“I’ll tell you what would happen next time, whoever comes in, David Luiz will probably play well for 10, 11 games and we’ll say, ‘he’s a good player’, then he’ll start making mistakes because he’s bored.
“You’ll have Xhaka, thinking, ‘wow, he’s a good player as well’, he’ll then get sent off.
“The manager will probably bring Ozil in and everyone will go, ‘he’s the answer, we should never have left him out in the first place’.
“He’ll do it for a couple of games then won’t track and he’ll get bored as well. Then that will be the problem with this team. Too many of them, no matter what you do, will let you down.
“It’s a team full of kidders right now, and I feel sorry for the young players.
The issue for the Spaniard now, however, is one of timing.
The north London club have never been known as a ‘hire em and fire em’ type outfit, but being stuck down in 15th place in the Premier League isn’t a situation that Arteta can justify for too much longer.
Salvation may come in the form of the January transfer window, when he can get rid of any troublemakers or those not giving their all, whilst bringing in one or two new faces to freshen things up a bit.