Arsenal latest: Ian Wright and Thierry Henry agree as Martin Zubimendi explains struggles

Arsenal are in a fight to keep their Premier League title hopes alive, with Ian Wright and Thierry Henry demanding more

Arsenal find themselves in worrying form as attention turns to this weekend's crucial Premier League encounter.

Mikel Arteta's side booked their spot in the Champions League semi-finals for the second consecutive season on Wednesday evening. In what was hardly a convincing performance, they held on to a 1-0 lead from the first leg in Lisbon, drawing 0-0 at the Emirates Stadium.

The display did little to inspire confidence, though, with the visitors hitting the woodwork and the Gunners mustering just one effort on target. It doesn't bode well for Sunday's potential title-deciding league fixture against Manchester City, which will be played away from home. City are currently in exceptional form.

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Defeat to Pep Guardiola's side, who beat Arsenal 2-0 in last month's Carabao Cup final, would narrow the gap at the top to just three points, delivering a possibly decisive blow to their title aspirations. City also have a match in hand.

Now, as Arteta spends the next few days devising a strategy that might save Arsenal's campaign, football.london rounds up some of the latest stories surrounding the north London club.

Arsenal legends agree

N5 legends Thierry Henry and Ian Wright are in agreement that Arsenal need to raise their level ahead of Sunday's clash with City. The club's two greatest ever strikers have been left bewildered by the poor level of play they have seen in the final part of this season, believing they will lose to City and surrender their grip on the title if they don't quickly find a solution in time for the Etihad fixture.

Wright, in particular, appeared unusually downcast during his appearance on the Stick to Football podcast. He said: "Watching the games, it hurts. There’s a pain that’s hurting me. It’s killing me that I can’t feel it.

"I’ve put so much, invested so much into the manager, the team, the players, everything. And they’ve got to a place again and you are just seeing it falling away, you’re seeing players making mistakes. When you are at the top of the league and you have to beat teams, I’m not seeing anything.

"You’re watching the boys, you’re watching the way we play, which honestly I don’t like but I’m just taking it to get over the line. We’re in a position that we’ve been in three times before.

"Why should I say to people that come up to me, 'Don’t worry, have faith?' We haven’t played any kind of football to beat a team in a way where [I can say that]. We can’t get through the nervousness."

Henry, meanwhile, was unhappy with Arsenal’s most recent display against Sporting. The Frenchman called on Arteta to demonstrate the same "fire" he recently insisted he feels by getting his team to play with energy and passion.

"I want to see that fire at the Etihad," Henry said on CBS Sports. "That's what I want to see, it's easy to talk, go there, at Man City, and deliver. I believe in what I see though, I believe in him Arteta, 'the fire', but when you talk like that you have to do it then. I didn't see that tonight.

"We are through, so happy, semi-final, I never won it, but I won the league. Go and win at Man City, I want to see that fire there, I believe Mikel, yes, but show it."

Zubimendi speaks out

Martin Zubimendi has suggested his recent dip in form is due to an injury. The Spain international, who arrived in a £51million transfer from Real Sociedad last summer, has looked well below his usual standards in recent months.

While some supporters put this down to the central midfielder's apparent loss of confidence, he produced a man-of-the-match display against Sporting, silencing those who had called on Arteta to leave him out for the match. The 27-year-old implied that carrying an injury has been behind his underwhelming outings lately.

Zubimendi said: "It’s been tough, both for the team and for me personally. We have games every three days. When you’re injured, you have to recover quickly, and last night against Sporting is proof of that."

In a major boost for Arteta ahead of the summer transfer window, he also firmly put to bed any speculation linking him to Real Madrid, despite having only arrived in north London last summer. Madrid had been very keen on bringing Zubimendi to the Bernabeu last year.

He told Cadena Ser Radio: "That has passed. I'm very focused and very happy where I am. It's not a bad thing [to be linked to Real Madrid]. When I decided to come here it was to live nights like this one and the ones that are to come. There's only a few weeks left and every game is going to be do or die, so I'm preparing for the next one."