Ex-Arsenal star Gilberto Silva explains the reason behind struggle of Arsene Wenger's boys

London, April 4: Former Arsenal star Gilberto Da Silva has asserted his opinion about the North London side's inability to win a Premier League title for a long 14 years as he claimed that a lack of leadership in the midfield has created a huge vacuum in the overall squad.

Gilberto in his time established himself as one of the best midfielders of Premier league and was an integral part of the famous Arsenal squad which won the invincibles league title in 2003-04 season.

The former Brazilian player was known for his tough tackling ability and a dominant, ball-winning defensive midfielder who joined Arsenal in 2002.

The player won one league title along with FA Cups in his six years stay with Arsenal. Since then, Arsenal have not yet won the Premier League once.

Gilberto, who also won World Cup with the legendary 2002 Brazilian side now have claimed that since his departure the Gunners haven't had a player as effective like him in his position and this very reason has been dragging the team down on an overall.

"You cannot blame the player for this but they need to find a player who can play there," he told Sky Sports.

"The role is to play simple. I couldn’t do the same as Henry, Ronaldo and the like and you have to know this to play there.

Gilberto also suggested that he at first imagined two Arsenal players, Alex Song and later Mathieu Flamini could carry on the process however both the players did not eventually live up to the hype.

"I thought Alex Song could have been the one to do this role but he went to West Ham and Barcelona.

"[Mathieu] Flamini in my last season he did a great job which is why I didn’t play which was very frustrating for me."

However, the 41-year-old cited a damning suggestion for another midfielder who also was great in 2015-16 at Arsenal and was hyped by many which are Francis Coquelin.

Coquelin in the winter window has left the club for Spanish side Valencia and currently getting a decent run of games but the veteran midfielder revealed that he never had high hopes from the player as he was never convinced by the Frenchman.

"I remember hearing a comparison with Coquelin when he was playing but when I started to see him I could see there was something missing in his game to be a holding midfielder and sacrifice himself for the team."

Arsenal currently have only two proper defensive midfielders in his ranks, Granit Xhaka and his backup Mohamed Elneny but both of them have not been yet up to the mark as Arsenal sit sixth in the league table.