Bacary Sagna delivers brutal verdict on Arsenal's pursuit of Unai Emery's successor

Former Arsenal defender Bacary Sagna has admitted that the club are operating "like a circus" in their pursuit of a new manager.

The Gunners are yet to appoint a successor to Unai Emery, with Freddie Ljungberg set to take charge of his fifth match is interim head coach against Manchester City on Sunday.

Mikel Arteta is the bookmakers' favourite to take over in north London, although he will be in the opposite dugout at the Emirates as part of Pep Guardiola's coaching staff this weekend.

Results on the field haven't improved since Emery's departure. Arsenal eventually ended their nine-game winless run against West Ham with a comeback win on Monday but limped over to a draw against Standard Liege in the Europa League.

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Former right-back Sagna believes the club needs to make an appointment soon to bring stability to the club and described the current running of Arsenal as "a circus".

"It seems at the minute like a big circus at the club," Sagna told Sky Sports Super Sunday.

"You don't really know who is making the decisions and it seems like the players are lacking confidence and it shows on the pitch.

"You can't blame them because they don't know who is going to be the next manager. It is a tricky, tricky situation for the club.

"First of all, they need to find a good manager and put some stability in the club. Last year you had some players leaving at the end of the season and it's been a long time since they kept hold of their players.

"Once they have a new manager in the next few days, I think, they will start the new process and hopefully they will start to shine again."

Sagna also insisted that Arsenal have enough quality in their squad to be performing better and put some of their recent haphazardous defending down to a lack of confidence.

"I believe so, they still have great players in Mesut Ozil, in Pepe, everyone is speaking about the bad defending but, for me, it is a lack of confidence as to why they are not performing," Sagna explained.

"Yes, all the players are really young and if they can keep hold of them it could be a good team."