Wenger rigidity is holding Arsenal back, says former invincible

Sol Campbell has pinpointed two major factors as to why Arsenal continue to fall short when it comes to winning the Premier League title.

The Gunners blew a chance to secure title glory last season when Leicester eventually ran away with the title, but it’s back to familiar ground this season with the club fighting to secure a top-four finish at best.

Campbell was part of the Arsenal ‘Invincibles’ side in 2003/04 – the club’s last Premier League title triumph – and the former England defender believes the Gunners simply lack the big characters needed to win the biggest prizes.

“The guys who will say something on the pitch, you don’t need one, you need almost four or five saying their stuff if things are not going right,” Campbell told Sky Sports.

“I don’t know what’s happening now, but when I was there we used to police it ourselves. We had the characters to police it ourselves. We didn’t allow the whole 45 minutes to go by, we would address it on the pitch because if you wait for 45 minutes and you are in, you might be 2-0 down.

“And we had the characters you know would say something – Patrick [Vieira] would say something, Tony [Adams], Martin Keown, David Seaman, all these guys. From the front, Thierry [Henry], Dennis Bergkamp, all these guys would chip in on the pitch while the game was going on. That’s the key, you’ve got to have those characters on the pitch.”

Campbell also questioned whether Arsene Wenger’s style of attacking football is holding the Gunners back.

“I think with Arsene, I think he believes he can win the league. I think he starts every season saying, ‘right, we can win the league playing this style of football,'” Campbell said.

“Obviously reality kicks in halfway through the season. It’s not that easy because you need the personnel on the pitch.”