Arsenal legend Martin Keown has slammed Unai Emery's management of the North London side, stating that he is to blame for Granit Xhaka's fall-out with the supporters.
The Switzerland international was booed off the field during last weekend's 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace and appeared to swear at the fans as he left the field.
Xhaka has since issued a statement on the incident but will miss tomorrow's Premier League clash with Wolves, with Emery confirming today that he is not a part of the squad.
While the dust settles from the fallout of the incident involving Xhaka last week, Keown believes that all the responsibility falls at Emery 's door and stated it's evidence of bigger problems at the Emirates Stadium.
"What all this has done is cast the eye on Emery. You start to look at his leadership in all this," he told TalkSport.
“I blame Emery for making Xhaka captain in the first place. He’s given the captaincy to a player who the fans were booing just five days before when they played Villa. They wanted him off the pitch.
"With all due respect, he should have given it to Aubameyang. Emery has to make the right calls at the right times and, I'm sorry, but he's not doing it.
"I would have told Xhaka to go back out there, admit your mistake and apologise, but that takes leadership. And so I start to look at the manager.
“I start to look deeper and think, have we solved the defensive issues? What was the problem when he came into the job? Were they solid enough? No. Are they solid now? No.
“You look at Ceballos’ amazing debut, and then he’s sitting on the bench. You look at Torreira who looks like a good signing, but he’s sitting on the bench.
“The only player who plays all the time is Xhaka, and the fans are feeling that he’s not actually playing well enough. So then that hatred is aimed at the player and he is the one who is suffering.
“Emery has created this situation, which is probably why he didn’t force the player to come out publicly and make a statement earlier in the week.
“I want to see the players who really want to fight for Arsenal, build the team around Ozil, find a plan. I know his attitude has been poor, but does the manager have the technical nous to play a system that brings Ozil into the team?
“It’s worrying, but he can rescue it. He’s worker. We need to move on and pull together as a club.”
