Unai Emery has acknowledged that Arsenal were unable to balance their "defensive-offensive equilibrium" this season in the Premier League, with such issues ultimately leading to his dismissal.
The Spaniard was sacked by the Gunners at the end of November following a poor run of domestic form that saw them slip down the table and effectively out of top four contention for the season.
Though he enjoyed greater success abroad in the Europa League, Emery was unable to translate that into results on the home front, despite reaching the knockout stages on the continent.
Speaking out now a month on from his exit, the former Sevilla and Paris Saint-Germain boss has admitted that his side struggled to balance their efforts at the back and up front consistently enough, though he takes pride from his side's home record.
“For me, one of the determining things and something that I will be proud of is that, at home - and this is the difference between the Premier League and the Europe League - in the Premier League the team was not losing," he told BBC Sport.
“My dismissal came after we lost against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League, which was the only game we lost. We were at breaking point and that day it snapped.
"There was a frustration because we couldn't get to the point we wanted to. I think we could have turned things around but I also understand that those at the top have to make decisions and take responsibility.”
“The team had to play with energy, needed to be capable of being solid in defence and in attack, aggressive, with the ability to take the game to the opposition and, on that basis, begin to be effective at scoring and winning.
“As far as the defensive-offensive equilibrium needed to win is concerned, we played a game against Liverpool in the Capital One Cup where we drew 5-5 and I, as a coach, thoroughly enjoyed that game.
“Of course, what you want is to win. A game like this you want to win 5-0, not draw 5-5 or, even worse, get beaten 5-0. But in this game there were many examples of what we were doing; a team more than capable in an offensive situation but defensively feeble.
“This was the process we had to go through to become more competitive. Last year we occasionally managed to achieve that equilibrium. But we were unable to maintain this defensive strength and this is one of the points.
“A victory might possibly have arrested the situation but the team had to look for defensive and offensive adjustments in order to arrive as being that unit capable of bringing out our brand of imposing football.
“We managed to do it last year. This season we didn't.”