Arsenal Fans' Verdict on the Burning Issues at the Emirates Stadium

Arsenal are a club enshrouded by uncertainty. Both on and off the field, they seem to lack any basic strategy. There is no clear in-game tactical plan, and no sense of a broader direction for the club itself. It’s not clear if the manager will be in charge next season, and the future of some of their biggest star players is in considerable doubt.

After another turbulent few days at the club, we canvassed the Arsenal fans to find out how they feel about the five biggest issues facing the Gunners between now and the end of the season.

1. Arsene Wenger: in or out?

The answer here was a resounding “out.” It seems that after years of division and infighting, the Arsenal support are approaching a consensus.

While vociferous vloggers would have you believe the Arsenal support’s opposition to Wenger has become deeply personal, the reality is that many fans still feel a huge amount of affection for a manager who is almost certainly the greatest in the club’s history. The admission that his time is up is laced with sadness, as most fans hoped to see him restore the club to the summit of the Premier League before stepping aside.

Those hopes have now all but faded. The majority of Arsenal fans are ready to welcome change—even if that brings with it a good deal of uncertainty. Supporters have grown tired of seeing Wenger’s sides fail in agonisingly familiar fashion and are ready for something new.

There was the occasional dissenting voice; however, even those fans who expressed a desire for Wenger to stay did so primarily because they did not trust Arsenal’s board to identify a suitable replacement.

2. Who would you rather stay: Wenger or Alexis Sanchez?

Wenger and Alexis appear to be at loggerheads at the moment. The Chilean was controversially left out of the starting XI for the Premier League clash with Liverpool, with David Hytner of the Guardian reporting that the decision was at least partially informed by a training-ground spat.

In conversation with Arsenal.com, Wenger has since denied the rumours, saying:

"

I explained after the game at Liverpool that I decided to go for a more direct option in the game. That’s what happened. That was the unique reason for my decision. All the rest, his attitude - he’s a committed player and sometimes has excessive behaviours but you have that many times in the history of every squad.

"

However, leaving the club’s top scorer out of such an important game is such a tactically unfathomable decision that there must have been a disciplinary element behind it. With Wenger and Alexis no longer on the same page, it seems the vast majority of Arsenal fans would prefer to keep their goalscoring talisman rather than the veteran manager.

Of course, the worrying thing for Arsenal is that they could lose both, leaving them with huge voids to fill on the pitch and in the dugout.

3. If Alexis goes, who should replace him?

The name that crops up most frequently here is that of Atletico Madrid’s French frontman Antoine Griezmann. 

One high-profile Arsenal fan who would love to see Griezmann at the Emirates Stadium—possibly even alongside Alexis— is former title-winner Robert Pires. In a YouTube video with Natacha Tannous (h/t Evening Standard), Pires said:

"

This is only speculation about Antoine Griezmann and Manchester United. Why not see Griezmann at Arsenal?

He has a good profile to play with this team. I think he could learn a lot with [Arsene] Wenger, with [Mesut] Ozil, Alexis [Sanchez], [Santi] Cazorla. Fingers crossed.

"

Griezmann would fit the bill if the Gunners need to replace Alexis. He’s quick, intelligent and clinical. Under Atletico boss Diego Simeone, he has evolved into one of the most dangerous strikers in the world.

However, that glowing reputation means there would be plenty of competition if he ever came onto the market. If Arsenal do not secure Champions League football, landing someone of Griezmann’s calibre would surely be little more than a pipe dream.

4. Will Arsenal make the top four?

Right now, Arsenal sit outside of the top four. With greater competition than ever for those precious Champions League places, there is now real concern that the Gunners might not qualify for Europe’s premier competition.

Opinion on their ultimate fate was divided, but a big chunk of the Arsenal support are increasingly convinced this will be the year they finally miss out.

It’s an understandable concern. Arsenal look as if they’re struggling for any kind of form. Instead, they appear to be sleepwalking towards catastrophe.

There was also some palpable apathy about whether or not Arsenal make it to the Champions League. Presumably that’s at least partly due to the fact that even when they do qualify, they don’t threaten the competition’s latter stages.

Such indifference is understandable. However, a lack of Champions League football would make it even harder for Arsenal to undertake the work required to restore them to being a competitive force.

5. If Wenger is to go, who should replace him next season?

This is the question that will have Arsenal’s board, as well as their supporters, scratching their heads. Finding someone to replace Wenger is an unenviable task. Arsenal may have to appoint a new manager for the first time in two decades—and there is no-one at executive level with any experience of that kind of process.

The most popular name at the moment is Massimiliano Allegri. The Juventus coach has moved to deny speculation linking him with the job, telling Sky Sports:

"

I repeat what I have already said before, it's not true. The second thing, even if there was something in it, the first to know and learn my wish to leave would be Juventus.

I'm contracted until 2018. I'm not the one to decide my future, Juventus will. It is they who decide because it's the way I work and have worked previously.

"

However, that does not seem to have dissuaded the enamoured Arsenal fans.

Perhaps their interest in Allegri stems from the success of another former Juventus manager, Antonio Conte, at rivals Chelsea. It’s also presumably because the Italian method of coaching is the opposite to Wenger’s free-form approach. After years of chaotic attacking football, Arsenal fans yearn for a more strategic thinker at the helm.

James McNicholas is Bleacher Report's lead Arsenal correspondent and will be following the club from a London base throughout 2016/17. Follow him on Twitter here.