Sports There is nothing in this present Arsenal team - Joey Barton

Queens Park Rangers midfielder Joey Barton has taken a swipe at Arsenal and said that the present team lacks belief and character to become successful.

Barton criticised Arsenal's manager Arsene Wenger who believes comes second-best when faced with bigger opposition who better than them.

Speaking BBC Radio 5 live,the former Manchester City,Newcastle and Marseille manager said other managers "had Wenger on toast".

"In big games they get under his skin and work them out tactically," said Barton.

Arsenal travel to Stamford Bridge on Sunday,but their away trips to the big sides haven't been particularly impressive.

Last season they were whitewashed 6-0 by Chelsea and they will be hoping to erase that when both teams meet this weekend.
"That record is probably the reason they haven't won a title for years.

"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.

"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."

"Sometimes you need someone to galvanise and that might be a shouter and bawler. It may not be Arsene's way, but I think they lack that.

"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."

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