Arsenal players are to blame, not Wenger – Nasri

Joe Williams

Samir Nasri: Has defended Arsene Wenger

Former Arsenal midfielder Samir Nasri has defended Arsene Wenger for recent form and instead blames the players for not getting the right results for the club.

The Gunners sit fourth in the Premier League table after recent losses against Watford and Chelsea, while their 5-1 defeat to Bayern Munich in the first leg of the last-16 Champions League tie leaves them on the brink of elimination.

Nasri still thinks highly of Wenger despite his sour exit from the club in 2011 when he left for Manchester City.

And the midfielder – now on loan at Sevilla – thinks the Arsenal players need to take more responsibility for the current situation.

“You cannot criticise a guy like that, it’s impossible,” Nasri told Sky Sports. “Arsenal was a big club but he made it even bigger. I just think people need to be fair.

“It is not his fault if Arsenal do not have success in the league. It is the players who do not get the results.

“It is hard for me to say something about him. I owe him a lot of things. He brought me to the Premier League and I became a better player.

“All the players who have played with him, when they left Arsenal they became better players. So I don’t think it is him. There is the board, the players – there are a lot of things at Arsenal.”