Arsenal: Guilty until proven innocent of Lukas Podolski claims

Lukas Podolski has claimed that Arsenal are lacking a fighting spirit. Arsene Wenger and his squad, in this case, are guilty until they prove otherwise.

The character of Arsenal’s squad is something that has been challenged for many years. Accused of lacking leaders in the dressing room, allowing a culture of niceties and mediocrity to seep in, and a failure to adapt and address the struggles on the pitch when games are started poorly are all elements of these criticisms. And they are, for the most part, fair ones.

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Arsene Wenger has not lifted a Premier League trophy since 2004. He has only led his team to three FA Cups since 2005, has failed to even muster a challenge for the title since 2014 and has now masterminded the slipping out of the top four and the Champions League. The results speak for themselves.

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And Lukas Podolski, in an interesting and revealing interview with The Arsenal Weekly Podcast, implies that such issues are because of a lack of fight within the squad. Speaking in reference to the North London derby, Podolski heralded the importance of a team willing to fight, suggesting that his former club no longer do so:

"“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.”"

The accusation is a fair one. In fact, given the limp, spineless results and performances for the past decade — it should be said that Podolski was a part of the team during a period of this time and cannot be completely absolved from blame or critique –, the Gunners are guilty until they can prove otherwise.

Since Podolski left North London in 2015, Arsenal have featured in five North London derbies. They have won just one of them, a third round EFL Cup tie, drawing or losing all of the Premier League matches. On its own, that is far from a perfect representation of their apparent lack of fight. But alongside the weight of evidence — the character of the players, the crumblings away from home, the European humiliations — it only goes to support Podolski’s point.

Against Chelsea on Sunday, Arsenal did show an element of the grit and bite that Podolski is calling for. They were disciplined and determined; they pressed high up the pitch; they hounded and harassed; they cared.

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But that is an anomaly and until they can consistently show the kind of desire and effort that fans, and Podolski, are yearning for, then they will, accurately, be cast as gutless and leaderless