John Motson has described Arsenal as a ‘contradictory club’ after their indifferent start to the season.
After replacing Arsene Wenger with Unai Emery, the Gunners went on a 22-game unbeaten run in all competitions to give fans hope of qualifying for the Champions League.
However, their form has dipped somewhat since that run was ended abruptly at Southampton and injuries and defensive frailties have once again crept into their play.
On Sunday afternoon defending Premier League champions Manchester City fully exposed those frailties by targeting the full backs as they secured a 3-1 win to send the Londoners back to sixth in the table.
And Motson believes it is that level of inconsistency which threatens to disrupt Emery’s first season in charge at the Emirates.
“I’ll tell you what I think, I think Arsenal at this moment is a contradictory club,” he told talkSPORT’s Hawksbee and Jacobs.
“For the first half of the season, they couldn’t do anything right in the first half and they won all their matches in the second half.
“And now yesterday, it’s the other way around! I think it’s contradictory because you can’t blame the coach because he’s still new; he’s still sorting it out.
“But it’s very difficult to know of what he how much he inherited from [Arsene] Wenger is a plus and isn’t a plus.
“A year ago, they spent a lot of money on [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang and [Alexandre] Lacazette, which was good, but then all of sudden they’re losing [Aaron] Ramsey – who I think is one of their better players – and they’re not using [Mesut] Ozil!
“So everything about Arsenal just does not quite stack up apart from the fact that the back four can be relied upon to concede goals.”
Although Emery secured the loan signing of Denis Suarez from Barcelona, the failure to bring in any defensive reinforcements could well come back to haunt the Gunners.
With Sokratis Papastathopoulos currently out injured and Rob Holding and Hector Bellerin out for the season, Emery is currently working with the bare bones.
And Motson does not believe he will be permitted much time to get it right at all.
He added: “The other thing, and this is another phrase which has crept in, is people saying that he will need four or five transfer windows to sort this out.
“That’s two-and-a-half years!”