Frank Lampard is the latest person to criticise Arsenal for their lack of fighters.
Lampard believes that Arsenal lack fighters, which is pretty much what every pundit or former player has being saying for years.
“I don’t think they have strengthened in the right areas year on year,” the Chelsea hero wrote in his Evening Standard column.
“They have been two or three players short of a team that can handle physical matches, which is what you need if you’re going to win the League or challenge for the Champions League, for more than a decade.
“It’s hard to replace someone like Patrick Vieira, but you have to at least try at some stage.
“It is impossible to win every week at the highest level without those physical attributes in the spine of the team. They have lacked that for far too long.
“Arsenal have consistently bought the same type of player when they have been crying out for centre-halves and midfielders who meet that challenge.
“They need to respond, but we are back to the same place with Arsenal – you can call it every year. They go on a run and then suffer a setback. There are too many false dawns.”
No fighters, no leaders, no guts, no spine. They’re all just different ways of saying that Arsenal don’t have, as Troy Deeney said following Watford’s 2-1 win over the Gunners on Saturday, the cajones to compete.
It’s not just because we don’t tend to challenge teams physically, although that can be part of it, it’s in every facet of our game.
We don’t fight for a win; when the Hornets were given a penalty and equalised the game completely changed. We didn’t fight to get our lead back. We capitulated and look what happened.
There are no leaders. Even though Per Mertesacker is the captain and occasionally shouts in the vague direction of his teammates, no one actually takes the game by the scruff of the neck.
The performances, much like the players, are spineless.
So Lampard isn’t the first person to say that Arsenal have no fighters and he won’t be the last because it’s pretty bloomin’ obvious to anyone with eyes.
Let’s change the record and move on.