“Today you forget about playing football, this is war.”
Words that would regularly reverberate around the walls of the Arsenal dressing room ahead of a must-win encounter against former foes Manchester United.
The manager may remain unchanged from those heady days in north London when Arsenal were perennial contenders, yet those words might offer little resonance around the current crop of Gunners.
And former midfielder Emmanuel Petit believes that the main ingredient missing from Arsene Wenger’s underperforming side is mental strength, or lack of perhaps, as the 1998 World Cup winner is convinced that they are missing leaders and personality, which has thwarted recent campaigns.
Arsenal face a near-impossible task tonight as they take on the Barcelona at the Nou Camp, looking to overturn a 2-0, first leg defeat and even if that battle cry of yore was to bellow around the away dressing room tonight, Petit believes that it would be too little too late as he feels that the tie is already a foregone conclusion.
“I think Arsenal have been missing something for ages, it’s mental.” Petit told RTE Sport.
“You can play badly, but you win the game. One thing that’s wrong with Arsenal is that you can see a lot of the players give up on the pitch.
“Mentally, I think they need to improve a lot but in terms of quality they have everything to win the title. That why the fans are so frustrated?
“The way they used to play, for me, is one of the best in Europe.
“They have great players, but they are missing leaders and personality. If you want to win things, then you need to suffer.
“Barcelona are living in their own world for the last four-five years. What they are doing is unbelievable, they have this magician with Messi but they have more magicians in the team now. The gap between Arsenal and Barcelona is huge.”
And while Petit was not trying to show any allegiance, as his two former sides go head to head this evening, the former France midfielder believes that the Arsenal players need a real dose of reality as they look to shock the European giants on their own patch.
“I think Wenger needs to be honest with them,” Petit explained.
“If I was an Arsenal player, I would think to myself, 'we lost the first leg 2-0, I haven't seen a team win 3-0 against Barcelona, it's impossible, how can we pretend to win against the best team in Europe when we can't win at home to Watford?'”
Petit was, however, unwilling to jeopardise his 25-year friendship with his former coach and was certainly not looking to wield the axe on the under-pressure Arsenal boss, who he believes should certainly remain at the club.
“Arsene and I have been friends for 25 years. He was my first manager, he brought me from Monaco academy to the first team, we won trophies, a European trophy, we did great things together with Arsenal, so I won't say that he has to leave.
“I am pretty sure he has to stay at the club but maybe it's time for him to open the door for something else as well.
“When I look at the former players from Arsenal, how many of them have their badges to manage a team, Dennis Bergkamp, Tony Adams, Patrick Vieira.
“I think Arsene... it's good to share the place with someone else and try to open the door to the former players.”
Petit believes that Wenger is already planning for next year and there are certain players that the former Gunner would love to see don the red and white of Arsenal.
Top of Petit’s wish list would be the signing of a quality holding midfielder, with current Leicester player N’Golo Kante ticking the boxes needed to make a real difference at the Emirates.
“Kante is a warrior, but as well, he is very intelligent, tactically.
“For me, he reminds me of (Claude) Makelele, the way he plays, the way he reads the opponents’ play.
“He is very intelligent as well when he gets the ball at his feet, he doesn’t often lose the ball, he wins so many tackles, interceptions, his reading of the game is perfect.
“For me, two years ago when he was in France with Cannes, he was already a good player, but now, he has become an international player.”
Petit left London back in 2000 to spend a season with Barcelona and while he did return to the hustle and bustle of the Premier League, he now admits that he regrets that he didn’t sign for Manchester United.
“When I left Barcelona, I had the opportunity to play for many clubs and Alex Ferguson phoned me twice.
“Regrets yes, because I really loved Manchester United at that time back in the day, the players they had; great warriors, great leaders, winning mentality all the time.”
Watch Barcelona v Arsenal live on RTE2 and the RTE Player tonight from 7:30pm.
Emmanuel Petit was in Dublin to launch Carlsberg’s Euro 2016 ticket giveaway. To be in with a chance of winning one of over 1100 tickets to Ireland Euro 2016 matches go to Facebook.com/Carlsberg.
