Piers Morgan has slammed Mikel Arteta once again - but claims he will give him credit if Arsenal qualify for the Champions League.
The controversial broadcaster has been a vocal critic of Arteta in recent months, despite the Spaniard guiding Arsenal to fourth in the Premier League. Few pundits were backing the Gunners to qualify for Champions League football at the start of the season.
Arteta made a brave call to strip Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - Morgan's "favourite player" - of the captaincy and drop him just before Christmas for disciplinary reasons. He then allowed the Gabon international to join Barcelona on a free transfer in February.
Since moving to Spain, Aubameyang has scored nine goals in 12 La Liga outings. The Catalan giants are now in pole position to qualify for the Champions League, yet so are Arsenal. They are two points ahead of Tottenham in fifth with five games remaining.
The Gunners have struggled of late - losing consecutive games to Crystal Palace, Brighton and Southampton - but now look to be back to their best after comprehensive victories against "Big Six" rivals Chelsea and Manchester United.
Aubameyang, who scored just four league goals this term before the transfer, has admitted it was the right decision for both parties. Morgan, however, remains frustrated by his departure and has criticised Arteta for creating a "nightmare" situation."
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"What does this mean?" Morgan asked talkSPORT when analysing Arsenal's recent form. "Is it Arteta in? Or Arteta out? He's spent £250million in two years. To my horror, he sold my favourite player Aubameyang, who's been banging in goals for fun at Barcelona.
"I thought that was a terrible decision, I still do. [Alexandre] Lacazette is our main striker and has scored since December. There's all these weird things going on - and if you ask most Arsenal fans, we're walking around like zombies... what's going to happen?
"The horror story is, it's us and Tottenham now to come fourth. It's like the worst nightmare possible. They've got a great striker [in Harry Kane] and we gave our's away. They've got a great manager, I'm not convinced about ours."
Although Morgan is yet to be convinced by Arteta, he promised to give the Spaniard praise if he guides Arsenal back into the Champions League.
"I will give Arteta due credit because I really didn't think they would get there," added Morgan. "But top four should never be the aspiration for a club as big as Arsenal... we should be challenging for the title.
"I will revise my opinion of Arteta - which for the moment is jury out - if and when he has a team that is genuinely competing for the title. When it comes down to money and resources and owners and banking - we've got the richest of all of them!"
