Joey Barton: Arsenal squad has neither character nor warriors like Vieira and Adams

Joey Barton (L) and Arsene Wenger (R)

QPR’s Joey Barton claims that the current Arsenal team is spineless and lacks character.

Arsene Wenger just completed 18 years at Arsenal and Barton touched upon the difference between his older teams and the teams he fields today.

In an interview with BBC, the English midfielder also spoke about how Arsenal struggle in big games, ahead of their big London derby clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday.

Rival managers have Wenger on toast: Barton

Barton said: “In big games they get under his skin and work them out tactically.”

Arsenal’s away record in their last 20 matches against teams who finished in the top five in the past few seasons is abysmal – they have won just one game, losing 16.

“That record is probably the reason they haven't won a title for years,” Barton continued.

“Nobody can criticise Wenger on the job he has done to build the infrastructure at that club to a fantastic level. But it's probably been sacrificed at the cost of trophies and challenging at that level.

‘Arsenal’s players in the last decade were warriors’

Barton also spoke about how teams feared the Arsenal of old.

“You think of his teams of [Emmanuel] Petit, [Patrick] Vieira, [Tony] Adams, [Martin] Keown and all those kind of warriors. You look around the Arsenal dressing room now, the people who would win you those kind of games against the top four clubs - they don't really have an abundance of them.

“At the latter stages of a season they come unstuck because of that lack of - I hate to say it - a real lack of character or spine within the team.”

“Psychologically, the managers of these big clubs are usually top managers and I think they've had Wenger on toast. Sir Alex Ferguson had him on toast in the end and Mourinho's got him on toast now. That's what costs them.”