Arsenal had better options than David Luiz reckons former Tottenham manager Tim Sherwood.
Tim Sherwood believes Arsenal got the wrong Chelsea defender when they signed David Luiz this summer.
It surprised the occasional pundit that Arsenal spent £8million on Luiz when they could have signed Gary Cahill for free.
Cahill joined Crystal Palace and has helped them in some big games, including picking up a draw against Arsenal.
Cahill fell out of favour with Maurizio Sarri at Stamford Bridge and was subsequently allowed to leave for free.
But for some reason, Arsenal was not interested in the former England defender and instead went for the calamitous Luiz.
Sherwood reckons the Arsenal defence hasn’t gotten any better following the arrival of Luiz. He feels Cahill would have done a much better job than the Brazilian.
You cannot score four goals every game
“Defending is an art as well,” Sherwood said.
“I always felt at the beginning of the season when I looked at Lacazette, Aubameyang, Ozil, Saka who they brought in, they brought [Nicolas] Pepe in, that they might have enough firepower.
“But unfortunately you can’t score four goals to win every football match, especially when you defend like that.
“Their problem was obvious to everybody. Not only the people who go to the Emirates, the people who watch Premier League football know that Arsenal cannot defend.
“It wasn’t a hard job to go and find better defenders than what they already had.
“An easy job, just go out and do it. Try and patch it up, find something,
“Gary Cahill, he was an obvious choice. We’re talking about someone who’s a Premier League winner, a leader-type character, and they end up going and getting David Luiz.
“Now, I agree, good value [for] David Luiz, but go and find someone better.
“They needed to do that, they haven’t done it. The recruitment’s terrible, and at the moment they’re getting results that they deserve.
“Wolves deserved that point – they deserved more, actually.”
The defence is set to cost Arsenal a Champions League place again this season unless they fix it with a good defender in the next transfer window.
Though confidence is not exactly high that they will get it right next time around. It is not as if their defensive acquisitions have been a roaring success.