Ainsley Maitland-Niles has been a regular under Unai Emery at right-back after Hector Bellerin suffered a serious knee injury back in January.
The 22-year-old, who prefers to play in a more central midfield role, has featured in every minute of Premier League action for the Gunners this season, however, he could be pushed out of the side in the coming weeks with Bellerin set to return.
The versatile Englishman came in for plenty of criticism for his individual performance against Watford on the weekend, and Maitland-Niles, talking to Sky, cited by @LTArsenal, appeared to take a dig at Emery by admitting they should have changed their style of play against the Hornets.
Words can’t describe how I feel about it. I think we tried to play the way we played, we should have changed it instead of being so persistent and trying to play out from the back.
And these Arsenal fans were quick to reply to the post, with plenty of supporters firing criticism at the Spaniard.
Twitter: @ltarsenal Emery has to go, if we leave it any longer it will become irreversible (@_dc_84_)
Twitter: @ltarsenal This is towards emery
emery done out here let’s get allegri in ASAP (@ImranR1o)
Twitter: @ltarsenal Does Emery still have control over the dressing room? (@SmarteeyPants)
Twitter: @ltarsenal Emery is losing the dressing room. . . (@LawrenceSciambr)
Read Arsenal verdict
The Gunners haven’t had the best of months so far, and it appears as if the feel-good factor around the club following the start to the campaign is slowly starting to wear off.
Maitland-Niles’ recent views on how the Gunners should have changed their style of play against Watford last weekend appears to be a dig at Emery and one made out of frustration over recent events.
Calls for Emery to lose his job and that the Spaniard has lost the dressing room have since followed, which is only adding to the tension around the Emirates.
