Tony Adams blasts ‘lightweight’ Arsenal players after Brighton defeat

Tony Adams has slammed the mentality of Arsenal ’s players

following their defeat to Brighton and believes Freddie

Ljungberg’s men look ‘ready’ to suffer poor results as soon

as a game begins.

The Gunners slumped to a 2-1 loss at home to Brighton on

Thursday evening while the players were booed off the pitch

by their own fans at the Emirates Stadium after the final

whistle.

In a woeful opening 45 minutes for Arsenal, Brighton took

the lead through Adam Webster. The Gunners equalised

through Alexandre Lacazette during a positive spell in the

second half but Brighton scored the winner with 10 minutes

remaining via Neal Maupay.

And Adams, who spent 14 years as Arsenal’s captain,

believes a lack of leaders inside the current dressing room

is to blame for the club’s poor run of form.

‘I think they are looking after themselves a little bit too

much,’ Adams told Premier League Productions.

‘They need brave people on and off the pitch.

‘You need a bit of honesty here, and a coach to go ‘hold on

a minute, come on guys’. You need to be called out.

And I

don’t think a lot of that has been going on.

‘The coaches put on lovely sessions for the team and

everything goes round and round until you go ‘actually guys,

you’re the ones on the pitch, you’ve got to make the

decisions and stand up and be counted’.

‘There are not too many of those guys out there. They are all

kind of looking after themselves.

‘And the minute it goes wrong, they’ve gone. They’ve gone

under. It’s too lightweight, there’s not enough characters in

there.

‘I think they are feeling a little bit sorry for themselves. I

think they need a bit of a shake.

‘If I were the coach in there I’d definitely be giving them a

shake and saying ‘look, be more scared of me than actually

getting out there and getting on with it’. That’s what they

need at the moment.