Journalist Charles Watts has come to the defence of Arsenal sporting director Edu Gaspar amid past criticism from some supporters.

What's the latest on Edu and Arsenal?

It's been a pretty brilliant season so far for the Gunners. After all, they currently have a five-point lead at the very top of the Premier League with just 11 games to play.

With that in mind, Edu has every reason to be happy and in a recent interview with Sky Sports at the London Football Awards (where the Arsenal players won the big prizes), he reflected on how the club were doing.

He said (via 90min): "I think we are in the middle of it [the process], there’s still a lot of things to do, and carry on doing, but also, we are very happy and proud to see where we are at the moment as a club. I think Mikel [Arteta] is, of course, doing a great job."

Despite Arsenal's evident success. Certain sections of the fanbase haven't always seemed to trust Edu and when the club failed to land Mykhailo Mudryk in January, some supporters firmly made their unhappiness known.

While speaking about it on his YouTube channel, Watts defended the sporting director against the "crazy" criticism, saying: "Edu is an interesting figure, I think, at the club, because he gets a lot of grief.

"You look back to January, and again, you have to kind of separate, I want to almost say real life from social media, because you saw halfway through January, Mudryk goes to Chelsea, the [Moises] Caicedo deal doesn't get done.

"'Edu Out' is trending on Twitter, which is just bonkers considering the work he's done, where he's helped Arsenal get to along with Arteta and everything like that – it's just crazy, it's bonkers.

"But that's the way of social media. It's so reactive in terms of if something happens, something goes wrong, something Arsenal were hoping to do doesn't work out, suddenly it's 'Edu Out' and that's just mental. But he is that sort of figure.

"I think he still divides opinion a little bit in terms of what he's done and what he hasn't done, certainly when it comes to selling players, but when he talks, I think he comes across really, really well.

"He doesn't talk enough, for me. I think he should talk a little bit more, because I think he does come across really well when he talks and his ideas come across well."

Has Edu done a good job as sporting director for Arsenal?

Seeing as Mudryk has failed to score even one goal since moving to Chelsea, and has just one assist in his first seven outings for the club, it's safe to say he might not have been that great for Arsenal in the short term.

What's more, Edu managed to land Leandro Trossard as an alternative and the forward has made a great impact so far with one goal and five assists in the league since arriving.

With that in mind, while also noting that Arsenal are top of the league, it certainly feels as though the club's sporting director is doing a pretty good job right now.

What's more, at the London Football Awards, he also spoke well about how the club took on the January market, saying: "So we went into the winter period really, really well prepared and then we started to make some quick and important decisions. So far it’s helping the team and the team’s performing well, so that’s good."

He then dropped an insight for what could happen in the summer, adding: "It’s already started because you know what’s happening in the market everybody is doing stuff.

"You have to plan with people as well just to be prepared so when you go again in the summer you are very prepared."