Rangers legend, Ally McCoist, has offered his opinion on the future of Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta during an interview with TalkSPORT.

The Scotsman, who scored 251 goals in 418 appearances for the Glasgow club, urged the Arsenal board and fans alike to show patience with the new regime, despite a poor start to the season.

Arteta has found himself somewhat under fire following a jittery start to the 2020/21 campaign, with his side winning just four of their opening nine games and looking significantly short in the creative department, making the omission of Mesut Ozil even more greatly confusing. However, McCoist cited Liverpool as a source of hope, saying that:

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“You just have to point at Jurgen Klopp and the way they’ve looked after him at Liverpool. They’ve stood by their man because it was not an overnight success. They gave him time, it was a four or five-year project and look at him now."

The former Rangers player and manager continued:

“I think the problem, and I use the word problem but not sure it's the right word, the thing about Arteta is that he had a brilliant start. He obviously won the FA Cup and they were flying for a period towards the end of last season. Everyone expected it to carry on again".

The FA Cup and Community Shield victories under Arteta certainly served to paper over many of the problems that existed in the Arsenal side, and McCoist feels as though that victory may have set unrealistic expectations for the upcoming season.

Despite this, however, he sees progress in this Arsenal side, telling TalkSport that:

“If it was a steady progress then everyone would be quite happy, but it’s the fact he started ever so well and they’ve stood still a little bit now. That’s the problem.”

It is evident even without the silverware to his name, Arteta has coached Arsenal to be a far better side defensively, albeit at the expense of the attacking flair that characterized most of the Arsenal sides sent out by former manager Arsene Wenger.

Whilst the results may not reflect the process that is underway at the Emirates Stadium, it is clear that Arsenal are a better side than when Mikel Arteta first took control.

Arsenal travel to Norway for their Europa League fixture against Molde before hosting Wolves on Sunday.