Arsenal Utterly Shamed By Scolding Sol Campbell

Sol Campbell has scolded the current Arsenal side for lacking leaders. Such scathing criticism is wholly valid, shaming the character of the players.

There are many issues with the current Arsenal side. They are defensively naive, especially in the full-back areas, they are overpowered by the stronger, more physical sides, and lack the mentality that the former sides hide in the early ’00s of being able to grind out the hard-earned, undeserved wins that often amount to a title.

Much of the media attention in the aftermath of the 3-1 dismantling at the hands of league leaders and likely title winners Chelsea has centred on the future of Arsene Wenger. After 20 years in the role, his approach is being questioned and his management style criticised.

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However, former defender Sol Campbell believes that the players should take more responsibility for the side’s demise. Speaking on Tuesday in the wake of the title-ending loss, Campbell criticised the team for having on-the-pitch leaders, players who were willing and capable of challenging others during matches in order to improve the team’s performance on the whole:

"““I don’t know what’s happening now, but when I was there we used to police it ourselves. We had the characters to do that. We didn’t just allow the whole 45 minutes to go by, we would address it on the pitch because if you wait for 45 minutes you might find yourselves 2-0 down. We had the characters that you just knew would say something. Patrick Vieira would say something, Tony Adams, Martin Keown, David Seaman. That’s the key, you’ve got to have those characters on the pitch.”"

The scathing comments certainly have some truth to them. Although Shkodran Mustafi since joining the club in the summer has shown a vocal nature, an eagerness to communicate to his teammates throughout games, the team is lacking strong-willed, determined personalities, like the ones that Campbell highlights as men who were central to Arsenal’s success in Wenger’s early days.

Although it would be possible to question Wenger’s transfer and development policy as to why such players are no longer at the club, actually that would a shortsighted assessment. It is down to the players to show a winning fight and desire, a mental fortitude and character within games. There is little Wenger can do once his team step over the white line.

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Campbell’s critique does highlight areas that are in need of immediate improvement. Arsenal need a strong-tackling, hard-hitting and tough-talking central midfielder and a leader at the heart of the defence. A team that is blessed with so much natural talent, both athletically and technically, is being held hostage by its lack of leadership, and that is shameful.

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