Unai Emery's future at Arsenal: Charlie Nicholas calls for an identity & wants Arsene Wenger back on the board at the Emirates

Unai Emery shouldn’t get all the blame. Has he made it better? No. It has got worse. The defending has got worse and the money they have spent has not improved them at all. Nicolas Pepe is struggling to get into a team which paid £72m for him. Dani Ceballos started well, and he is a talented player, but what talent fits into this system? Ceballos is the passer and Pepe is the dribbler, while Mesut Ozil is back in the team now too so it's all a bit confusing.

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Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette don’t know what they are trying to do or what their style is. They want to get on the ball and make things happen, but they do not have any runners since Aaron Ramsey left. The youngsters are fighting for competition - Gabriel Martinelli, Bukayo Saka, Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson have come in and done well in spells but are not yet ready to take it to the next stage. The guys in front are expected to be better but the attacking side of things has lost its way.

Arsenal cannot get the balance right with the defence and two midfield players. It tells you everything that they went with a back three and a four in front at Leicester. Where did that come from? I guarantee they would have only had one day to work on it, so the whole thing implies they have lost their style.

We knew Emery’s style at Valencia and Sevilla - they were tough and scrappy in midfield and all about pace and movement up front. This front lot have more ability and reputation than he has ever worked with but his team do not have the strength and capabilities at the back - the attack is bogged down. Aubameyang and Lacazette have a lack of movement and are struggling to combine with each other.

What is Arsenal's style?

It’s a complete disaster of a style and formation. He does not know his best starting side and his best formation. This is why he is under the pressure he is under. I don’t think he will get sacked. He is asking for time, but will he get the 18 months? The majority of Arsenal fans are not wanting him to go, but if it is not sorted soon, it may go down that line.

Come January when the transfer window opens, the Arsenal board will say they have no money, but you need money for defenders. Either that, or you need to get rid of the dead wood. Calum Chambers has been in and out of the club, but now he is a regular full-back, and that is wrong, completely and utterly wrong.

Rob Holding looks terrified when he gets the ball, David Luiz looks comfortable with the ball but uncomfortable without it, and yet we insist on playing out from the back. I like Matteo Guendouzi but he is having an absolute shocker, he hasn’t earned the right to get in the team.

I am confused with where this is going, and that is created by his own choices. If he doesn’t sort it out before Christmas, he does come under scrutiny. The top four was there for the taking with Man Utd struggling, but Leicester and Chelsea are doing better than anticipated.

Arsenal are hopeless yet are still in sixth, but you have to stay at it and try and give yourself a chance to fight for those places.

Get Wenger back

Will they give Emery more money? Is he in charge of transfers? Will they get defenders, and then will they be good enough? It is disappointing and sad to see how badly they have fallen away.

Arsenal fans are saying that Arsene Wenger created some of this, and he did - he left behind a soft team with no aggression and leadership. I suggested on Saturday that if you want to overlord the process, I would go in for Wenger and get him on the board or as the technical director.

Why let him talk to Bayern Munich and float about on TV when you can have that brain, fabric, and understanding of it all to get the club right, working with an experienced manager to get it right. He can improve the decision making, why did they miss out on Gary Cahill? Wenger couldn’t sort his own problems, but he could help Emery in certain ways here.

I was always teased about the hierarchy not being right, but we have around four guys arguing over transfers. Is Edu the one who says these are the players Arsenal are getting? Is he in strong communication with Emery? Not everything is Emery’s fault, the players should be doing better but what is the team and what is the style? That is where the problems lie right now.

Pepe risk not paid off

I said that at the time that the Nicolas Pepe deal was a risky move for that amount of money. Pepe has got great potential, but is not the one I think we needed to jump on. I like to play from the front, but the back needed sorting.

Around £72million on a potential talent going forward, when we have the likes of Saka, Nelson and Martinelli to potentially play these roles, was strange to me. I don’t understand how they spent £100million, let a defender go back and bring in a winger. Have you not seen where the problems have been for the past five years?

They couldn’t wait to get Laurent Koscielny out, Sokratis is adding nothing to Arsenal and Shkodran Mustafi is done and finished. Petr Cech has moved on, so then are they rebuilding? We just don't know.

Kieran Tierney comes in for £25million but needs three months to be fit. He will be decent once fit, but Arsenal should be planning to sort the problem out now, and they haven’t done it.

The manager shouldn’t take all of the blame, but most of it. Emery must go positive to win football matches after the international break.

If this doesn’t work, he may be out by January - he is hanging on. The board will not look to ease him out. A lot of people are wondering why they should wait.

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