Former Boss Unai Emery claims Arsenal players "asked for more than they were giving back."
In an interview with France Football, Emery lifted the lid on how the players "did not have a good attitude" and "asked for more than they were giving back".
It comes after the Spaniard was relieved of his duties in November following a poor run of results which left Arsenal eighth in the Premier League, eight points off the top four.
Emery maintains that he did a good job during his time at the club, which included a run to the Europa League Final. He felt that he should've been given more time to "transition to a new Arsenal."
He claims that "Arsenal was a club on a downward slope for two years before I arrived".
The former Sevilla and PSG boss took over from long-time manager Arsene Wenger in 2018.
"We stopped this fall and even began to rebuild the club with the Europa League final and 5th place in the league, only one point off of Tottenham despite the fact that we took just one point in our final five matches."
“We had Champions’ League qualification in our grasp and it went wrong in the end. But it was a good season and we had this notion of continuing to improve.”
Emery believes that the loss of key figures with leadership roles set him on the path to ultimately losing his job just over two months into the 2019/20 season.
“We lost our four captains: Koscielny, Cech, Ramsey and Monreal,” he added. “They were personalities that we missed this season to stay on the right track.
“And some stars did not have a good attitude and asked for more than what they were giving back.
“Taking all of that into account, we needed time to succeed with our transition to a new Arsenal which is what I wanted.”
Mikel Arteta was appointed as the new Arsenal boss in December and the club currently sit tenth, ten points off the top four.
