Sokratis Papastathopoulos has hinted that the Arsenal squad, and not former head coach Unai Emery, should be held responsible for the Gunners’ stuttering start to the season.
Arsenal picked up just their sixth league win of the season on Wednesday night and a first of Mikel Arteta’s tenure, a superb 2-0 demolition of Manchester United that was by some distance their best performance of the campaign.
The Arsenal squad have been united in their praise of Arteta, who was unveiled as the new head coach just before Christmas, whilst David Luiz last night offering a clear indication as to the unhappiness of the squad under Emery.
Sokratis was among those who began 2020 in a far more impressive fashion than he ended 2019, scoring the crucial second goal and imposing himself on Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford as Arsenal kept their first clean sheet at the Emirates Stadium since October 6.
"I said already that [Arteta] is a very good manager,” he said. "Of course he likes to do some new things, like his style. Everybody has to give 100 per cent to back him and to try.
"This doesn’t mean that also the manager that was here was not very good. This season I think that we didn’t start well, so now it is a new year and we have to start every day to show that we are a better team.”
He added: "We spoke all together and said that now we, of course, cannot look behind.
“We know that this season has not been good for us, because as a team we have to be in a much better place. But we have to start to improve and to show that we have the capacity to do this.”
There had been clear signs of progress under Arteta even before he claimed his first win on New Year’s Day.
Indeed an argument could be made that Arsenal never hit the heights in dispensing with Manchester United that they reached in the 2-1 defeat to Chelsea three days earlier.
Arsenal had been leading in that match until the 83rd minute but had tired notably in the second half after dominating the Blues in the opening period.
In light of the convincing nature of their win last night it is tempting to assume that another goal against Chelsea on Sunday might well have been enough to earn them a further three points.
"We deserved the win,” Sokratis said. “After the result against Chelsea we spoke together and we said that we have to fight more, and to try to give everything. Today was, I think, one of our best performances of this season.
"I think against Chelsea the performance for the first 35 minutes was very good.
"Today, also in the second-half we struggled again but it is important when these moments come that we stay compact together and fight.
"I think with the structure of the team now, the players they feel confident. There is a lot of space to improve and we have to try every day to improve things."
