Former Arsenal defender Lee Dixon was heavily critical of the Gunners’ defensive organisation against Chelsea last night.

The 4-1 defeat in Baku cruelly exposed the club’s shortcomings at the back and the TV pundit doesn’t think even Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk would be able to help strengthen the team’s defence:

“I’m telling you, you could put van Dijk in that back four at the moment, the way that the team is set up without the ball – he wouldn’t make much difference.”

“It’s about the mentality of changing that around, they’ve not been good without the ball for years now.”

“t takes a lot of work and effort on the training pitch. He’s got to be given time to do that but he also needs the quality of player to do that.”

Arsenal manager Unai Emery’s key defensive ploy is the high press, and while it clearly worked for the first half an hour last night, Chelsea began to break out and bypass the high pressing game by escaping tackles and passing with precision.

From there, the backline was completely exposed and, as Dixon mentions, there is very little organisation off the ball to track the runners, and prevent the opposition from scoring.

As well as needing a number of new faces in defence next season, Emery will also need to drill his players into a better system beyond simply pressing high up the pitch.