Former Arsenal forward Lukas Podolski says the Gunners need to show more fight in their derby games, and believes such outings have become “a little too friendly”.

Podolski told the Arsenal Weekly Podcast via Metro: “Derbies are always something special for me. I come from a generation who always fight on the pitch. Now the derby’s becoming a little too friendly for me.

“When there is something important, like a derby, for me it’s always important to fight. On the pitch you have to fight, off the pitch you have to get a yellow card or to get the fans to motivate.”

I believe, Arsenal did show some fight against Chelsea, in a hard-fought draw against the defending champions at Stamford Bridge, but it still wasn’t as aggressive as some of the past matches between Arsenal and their local rivals, personally.

Chelsea were reduced to ten men – for the third time in a row against the Gunners – but that was just the result of a bad challenge, rather than a fight. It didn’t seem to me to be motivated by any grudge David Luiz held against Sead Kolašinac.

In my opinion, Arsenal did show the more dirty side to their game towards the end of the match, picking up three yellow cards in the final 10 minutes as the result of persistent fouling and breaking up Chelsea’s counter-attacks. Perhaps Podolski just wants to see more of this in the big games.

As long as Arsenal are getting results in the derbies, I’d guess most fans probably aren’t too worried about how it happens. However, it is fun to watch your team have a go at all the players you love to hate as a supporter, so I don’t think fans would mind a bit more of that either.