Sol Campbell says Arsene Wenger didn’t spend a lot of time coaching the team defensively during the centre-back’s time at the club, despite the obvious need for it.

Campbell was speaking to Friday’s Daily Telegraph, and generally had positive things to say about the Arsenal manager.

When it came to the defensive side of Wenger’s management though, the Englishman wasn’t so kind.

The interviewer asked the former Gunner whether the 68-year-old ever actually coached defending, to which Campbell responded: “Not really. Arsene focused more on forward play. The defending side, he was not big on that.”

That isn’t particularly encouraging to hear. Of course, Arsenal now have Steve Bould to help out with the defensive side of the game. The former centre-back was a key part of one of the club’s great defences between 1988 and 1999. You’d therefore think he has a lot of knowledge and experience to offer.

Unfortunately, Bould has a reputation as a bit of a yes-man. You don’t get the sense he stands up to Wenger to tell him what needs to change and Alan Smith recently revealed that Bould isn’t given much responsibility anyway.

More to the point, the results on the pitch show that whatever the system is, it isn’t working.

It’s over two months since Arsenal last kept a clean sheet in the league. They’ve conceded five or more league goals compared to every other big-six side – even Liverpool, who are notorious for focusing on outscoring opponents rather than bothering to defend.

If Wenger can’t turn that around himself, which he clearly can’t or he would have already done it, he has to bring in someone who can.