'Fabregas would have got a slap!' | Kilbane on Arsenal indiscipline

Kevin Kilbane took time away from his Canadian bolthole to talk through the restarted Premier League - and had withering words for Arsenal.

After reports that Matteo Guendouzi taunted Brighton players over wages, Kilbane believes it signifies a classlessness that set in at the club a long time ago.

"That's Arsenal," Kilbane said of Guendouzi's comments.

"That is what Arsenal have been like for 10 or 15 years now, and it is no coincidence that they have had little success during the last 10-15 years. They have won FA Cups, but they have been nowhere near it in the Premier League.

"A lot of the players have lacked discipline over the years."

Arsenal's Matteo Guendouzi (left) argues with Brighton and Hove Albion's Neal Maupay after the Premier League match at the Amex Stadium, Brighton.

While he expected 'sledging' as a part of the game, Kilbane believes that Arsenal were one of the few top clubs at the end of his career that would engage in childish banter.

"That type of thing was par for the course for Arsenal - I didn't necessarily see it from any of the other top sides.

"Sledging happens constantly; I've played with some real mouthpieces over the years and you just take it with a pinch of salt.

"I think that something went wrong 10 to 15 years ago, when [Arsenal] went through this lean spell. They lost that real leadership that they had when Wenger took over with Adams, Bould and Keown.

"That passed on to the next generation of the likes of Vieira and Pires that went through that dressing room. The discipline was lost somewhere and that has filtered over to the pitch now."

Arsenal indiscipline

Francese Fabregas, Arsenal

Kilbane believes that Brighton gave them the sort of 'slap' that they needed.

"There has got to be a massive change within that club and I think Arteta knows that. There has to be a massive change of mentality because it hasn't been working."

Kilbane is on record as saying Cesc Fabregas was one of mouthiest players he played against but railed against the idea that it was his appointment as Arsenal captain that the rot set in.

"If you're winning trophies, it doesn't matter - I have said before that I think they weren't winning trophies because of that lack of leadership.

"You can be a mouthbox; if Fabregas was going to come up to me in the street and give some of the mouth that he would give me or others on a pitch, then he'd get a slap. He'd be put on his box straight away.

"But he was protected, and he knew he was protected. So he felt as though he had a right to go and shout his mouth off."

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