Unai Emery has blamed the saga over the captaincy, the attempted robbery of Mesut Ozil and Sead Kolasinac and the £72m signing of Nicolas Pepe in a frank assessment of where it went wrong for him at Arsenal.
The Spaniard was sacked less than halfway through his second season in November after a string of poor results and performances.
Though he admits the Gunners were not playing well under him, he believes there were a number of problems that were beyond his control and contributed to his downfall.
'This second year, we have not played well; we have not defended well. We have not been competitive; We did not transmit. And I told the players myself', he told Marca.
'There were several problems: four captains; the Ozil-Kolasinac case; Pepe's signing, who needs time since he came from France… We didn't play well, that's for sure.'
'That brought us bad results, there was no improvement, the fans focused on me and they threw me out. But I keep the positive things, there were many.'
'Mikel has a lot of experience as a footballer and has worked alongside Pep, who is top', he added.
'He is playing a 4-2-3-1 like ours. Ozil is still "10", and is slowly looking for his identity. But with my departure, the hostile atmosphere was relaxed. The results are not being the best but you have to give it time to do so.'