Alan Shearer slams Arsenal’s unbelievably poor defending after their loss to Manchester City.
Alan Shearer was so shocked at how poor at defending Arsenal was that the former Blackburn striker believes that it could take up to three years before Arsenal can compete at the top again.
Arsenal defence has been severely criticized as the team continues to concede goals that they should be able to defend.
Shearer is of the view that their defence has been a longstanding problem and the Gunners recruited badly in the summer when they failed to fix their defensive issues.
Instead, Arsenal spent more than £70 million on Nicolas Pepe from Lille even though they knew they had a good attack.
David Luiz was brought in to make their defence better, but everyone knows how bad the Brazilian can be when he is not performing at his best.
“Arsenal’s biggest problem is recruitment, defensively they are so bad it’s unbelievable,” Shearer wrote in his column for The Sun.
“Going forward they are fine because they have Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. But in terms of the quality of their defenders and midfielders they are miles behind the top teams.
“They spent £72 million on a winger in Lille’s Nicolas Pepe, when they knew they had big problems at the back. That made no sense at all.
“True, they were left high and dry when Laurent Koscielny suddenly wanted to leave so late in the transfer window but Arsenal’s defensive problems had been apparent long before that.”
Shearer added that he believes it would take lots of work and plenty of money to get Arsenal back at the top.
“The ease with which Manchester City beat Arsenal shows that the Gunners are miles away from where they used to be — and where they want to be,” Shearer continued.
“It’s going to take a lot of time and a lot of investment to get them competing at the highest level.
“I would say at least two or three years and definitely a huge amount of money.”
As with numerous pundits opining on the Arsenal defence, it is hard to argue with what Shearer has written. The defence is a shambles and there is little confidence that any manager can turn this shower into half-decent defenders.
Arsenal now have no clean sheets from their last 14 games in all competitions, they will face Everton at Goodison Park on Saturday and the fans can only hope for a better performance.