Piers Morgan has told Arsenal fans to “temper their irrational over-excitement” about the job Mikel Arteta is doing at the club following the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool.
The Gunners came into Wednesday night’s clash on the back of five Premier League wins on the spin, a run of form which has put them in the driving seat of the race for a top-four finish. But goals from Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino earned the Reds a vital victory to boost their own hopes of wresting the Premier League title from Manchester City.
Even with the defeat, Arsenal remain in fourth place, a point ahead of fifth-placed Manchester United, having played two games fewer. But the loss served as yet another example of Arteta’s side falling short against the league’s best.
In this season alone, Arsenal have played the top three; Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea five times, losing all five, scoring once and conceding 15 in the process. And while the Gunners gave the Merseysiders a run for their money, they were once again left empty handed.
In the aftermath of the defeat, celebrity Arsenal fan and vocal Arteta critic Piers Morgan had another dig at the man in the dugout, claiming supporters have gone over the top in their praise for the Spaniard. Taking to Twitter, Morgan said: “Arsenal fans need to temper their irrational over-excitement about Arteta’s ‘process’ until we stop losing to City/Liverpool/Chelsea every time, home & away. Even 4th place looks a tough challenge now with no top striker.”
Much of Morgan’s ire towards Arteta appears to have stemmed from the decision to ostracise, and subsequently sell ex-club captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The Gabon international was allowed to cut short his stay in north London, following a public falling out with the Arsenal boss.
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“Arteta has taken weird pleasure in publicly humiliating our best, and best-paid, player, behaving like a particularly smug and intransigent disciplinarian headmaster punishing a naughty schoolboy for reasons that have never been fully explained — but at what benefit to the team?” Morgan wrote in his Sun Sport column back in January.
“As for his penchant for wielding the under-performance punishment sword, the time is fast approaching when it may need to be wielded on him. For all his tough guy talk and endless “trust the process” bull****, Arteta’s so far been a demonstrable failure at Arsenal.”
In another post, following the win over Leicester on Sunday, he said: “Arsenal fans have spent the past 2hrs gloating about why we’re so much better without Aubameyang & they’re so glad he’s gone. Meanwhile, he just scored his 6th goal in 9 games for Barcelona, which includes 5 goals in 6 La Liga games. I miss you Auba.”
After finishing in eighth place in back-to-back seasons, Morgan even went as far to state that should Arsenal fail to secure Champions League football, he should lose his job: “If we don’t make the top four this season, and even that ‘achievement’ seems such a lowly ambition for a supposed big club, then he shouldn’t be given a pay rise, he should be sacked."
