Thierry Henry backs Mikel Arteta and asks team for effort

LONDON: Former Arsenal captain Thierry Henry threw his weight behind manager Mikel Arteta but insisted that the team should have won at least one title in the past three seasons to show their efforts.

Mikel Arteta has turned Arsenal back into a force since taking charge in 2019 but has delivered just one major trophy during his reign, the FA Cup in 2020.

Arsenal have finished as Premier League runners-up three times in succession, twice pushing Manchester City hard but this time finishing a distant second to Liverpool.

They exited the Champions League semi-finals, having reached the quarter-finals the season before, and were knocked out in the semi-finals of the League Cup.

Henry explained that he was not disappointed but it is normal for people to raise questions.

He further said the team should have won at least a cup.

"I'm not saying that I'm disappointed with Arsenal, but it's normal that people are raising questions now about what the team is doing," Henry said.

"I understand that at the very beginning you arrive and it's not your team. You need at the very least three or four transfer windows to change everything that you want to.

"It takes time and you have to give a manager time to be able to implement what he wants to do. For the last three years Arsenal have been in a situation where they should have at least brought one cup or (reached) a final."