William Gallas has blasted Arsenal's "unacceptable" results by claiming Premier League champions do not drop points as cheaply as the Gunners.
The former captain, who was speaking ahead of today's top-flight clash against one of his other old sides , feels Mikel Arteta's men only have themselves to blame after falling a whopping 15 points adrift of table-toppers .
Gallas told Prime Casino: "This has been Arsenal’s problem for years. They drop too many points against the smaller clubs in the .
"Yes, they drew to , they lost at home to , but have you seen some of the other results? Ten draws is too many for a team that wants to win the league. Premier League champions don’t draw at home to and West Ham. They don’t lose to away.
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"It’s unacceptable for a club like Arsenal to drop points like this year-after-year. Yes, we all know the Premier League is very competitive, we all know that the level has gone up across the league, but when you keep making the same mistakes, you have to question the mentality of the players."
While injuries and officiating decisions including Arsenal's five top-flight red cards have cost the Gunners dearly throughout the course of the campaign, Gallas still feels as though the title was there to be won by his former employers.
Arsenal surrendered a late lead against Liverpool in late October and later drew at , at home to Everton, away to and at home to .
But in the past month, the gut-wrenching 1-0 defeat to West Ham plus 1-1 disappointing away draws at Forest and has left them with a mountain to climb and the focus has now undoubtedly shifted towards the .
He continued: "Winners don’t settle for draws or defeats, they win at all costs. Liverpool have drawn seven games but they’ve lost one.
"You’re only going to get so many chances to win the league. When the door opens, you have to walk through it. In the last three seasons, the doors opened twice, and they turned around and locked it. It's so annoying. It's not because the opponent was too strong.
"It’s because Arsenal drew games, dropped points against small teams. If it was against a big club, a big team, I would say, okay, no problem. But when they take the lead and they can’t hold on to it, it’s frustrating."
Earlier this week, - deemed the missing piece of the puzzle by supporters - for two years running.
He said of the Spaniard: "Arsenal should have signed a big striker in the summer of 2023, but they didn’t. They should have signed one in the summer of 2024, but they didn’t. Top managers don’t make that same mistake two seasons running. That is completely unacceptable."
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