Arsenal news: Wayne Rooney's 'unfair' remark as Mikel Arteta decision slammed - 'Who cares?'

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Arsenal once again find themselves at the centre of discussion as we approach the business end of the season. Mikel Arteta's men made hard work of their FA Cup fifth-round trip to Mansfield Town on Saturday, where they secured a narrow 2-1 victory.

Yet, the Gunners can still be optimistic given they are currently seven points clear of Manchester City in the Premier League title race. They are also in the Carabao Cup final, where they will face City later this month.

Arsenal will first turn their attention to a crucial Champions League last-16 first-leg tie at Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday night, having topped the league phase of the competition and earned a favourable draw as a result.

Now, Mirror Football takes a look at two of the biggest news stories surrounding the north Londoners ahead of the fixture.

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Wayne Rooney has rushed to Arsenal's defence by calling recent criticism of their playing style "unfair". The Gunners, for much of this season, have had to adopt a pragmatic style of football to get over the line in matches.

That has drawn criticism from pundits such as Paul Scholes, who labelled the Gunners as the "most boring team" to win a title if they go on to lift the trophy in May. But his former Manchester United team-mate Rooney disagrees, instead praising Arteta for learning how to win in a variety of ways.

He said on The Wayne Rooney Show: "I've heard a lot of people talking about Arsenal and the way they're playing, but I think they've been brilliant. Football is played in different ways. Man City have had spells when they were absolutely incredible, the same for my Man United team

"But Arsenal have got a good mix, they've got different players who score goals, they're hard to play against, they keep clean sheets. I actually enjoy watching them play.

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"The set-pieces are part of football – why would you not use it? They put bodies in the box. If teams aren't clever enough or haven't got the players to deal with it, why wouldn't Arsenal continue to do that?

"I would be doing it even more if I were Mikel Arteta . It's part of the game, and I love it. They don't have to change anything. They maybe haven't scored as many goals from open play as they would like, but they've made up for it in other ways.

"The last league title we [United] won, we weren't great as a team, but nobody is talking about that now. I don't think Arsenal have been as bad as people are saying, I really don't. I'm not saying this because I like Arsenal, I'm saying this because I think the criticism they've received is very unfair."

Arsenal legend Perry Groves says it was a mistake to let Ethan Nwaneri leave on a season-long loan deal to Marseille in January. After an impressive debut in which he scored for his new side, Nwaneri's time in France has quickly become a source of frustration.

The manager who brought him to the club, Roberto De Zerbi, left Marseille last month, with the 18-year-old now being reduced to appearances off the bench under the new boss. Nwaneri's reason for leaving Arsenal in the first place was to earn more valuable minutes to aid his development, leading former Gunners winger Groves to call his departure a huge error.

Groves said: "The one thing I've always said is I couldn't believe they let Nwaneri go. I don't care, you can't have too many bodies, even if you're not giving them game time, and those players are not getting into a squad of 20, who cares?"

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Inside Gooners host Nick Bright suggested: "There's probably a little bit of player management there, in terms of just keeping him happy." But Groves didn't agree with that assessment, saying: "Who cares?"

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