While Winterburn is backing the current boss, he admits that another collapse would necessitate a deep dive into the club's shortcomings. If Arsenal squander their fourth consecutive title challenge, the hierarchy will likely face difficult decisions regarding the direction of the project and the personnel involved. "I think most clubs will have a review at the end of the season," Winterburn added. "Depending on if Arsenal win anything, what they do, they’ll then look internally too, like always, not only at staff, but they'll also look at players and where they can improve again.
"So I could say if Arsenal go and win at the weekend, most people say the title is virtually theirs. So it's very interesting from three weeks ago how people were thinking to how they're thinking now. Any talk about Arteta, I think, is so disrespectful at this stage of the season. Get to the end of the season. If it doesn't happen, then I agree, I think there will be a lot of things to answer as to why it went wrong. But we don't know if that's going to happen. That's something I refuse to discuss at the moment."