Arsenal is in the news for the wrong reasons yet again as Mikel Arteta’s side were beaten by Brighton at the weekend.
The Spaniard’s team had been making fine progress before the suspension of football and they were unbeaten in domestic football before the restart.
However, they returned with a 3-0 loss to Manchester City before losing again to Brighton at the weekend.
Gary Neville in his usual manner has commented on Arsenal’s current troubles and he claims that Arsenal just cannot be trusted at the moment.
The Englishman claimed that the Gunners have one problem and that is their poor defenders and he urged them to sign better defenders.
He praised the current defensive shape that Arsenal is playing under Arteta, but he added that while the shape is good, the defenders will always let you down.
He claimed that good defenders cannot afford to be emotional and that a defender that is ice-cold is a much better defender.
‘You just can’t trust Arsenal, you haven’t been able to for years,’ he said on the Gary Neville Podcast. ‘We’ve all said it.
‘Mikel Arteta – we should still say that the shape Arsenal are playing, the shape they have defensively I think is better than it was previously but the individuals within that will let you down.
‘It doesn’t matter how well you coach the shape, if you get exposed one on one or defenders make mistakes – as we saw in that game against Manchester City and against Brighton – then you’re just going to get punished.
‘They just need defenders with better concentration. Jamie [Carragher] mentioned about (Liverpool defender) Dejan Lovren being emotional.
‘Sir Alex Ferguson – there were elements of me that were emotional sometimes as a player and he would knock it right out of me. He said I hate emotional defenders. He wants his defenders to be ice cold.’
While Neville is correct, our defensive problems are not confined to our mediocre centre backs.We must be the only side in the EPL to operate without a dedicated defensive midfielder and our front three need to work a lot harder to win the ball back.Having worked with Pep at Man City, Arteta, more than anyone will be aware of the need to defend from the front .This is an area where our Manager can make an impact in the short term by insisting that the likes of Lacazette and Peep do not switch off at set pieces for example.Mane of Liverpool is a classic example of a forward who is prepared to bust a gut defensively for his team.All our players must buy into this requirement if we are to improve defensively .
OT.. I saw this online –
Arteta’s PL record when Xhaka completes 90 minutes:
•9 games
•0 defeats
•4 clean sheets
•90 minutes per goal conceded
Arteta’s PL record when Xhaka fails to complete 90 minutes:
•3 games
•3 defeats
•0 clean sheets
•34 minutes per goal conceded
Like it or not, he’s key
No he isn’t Sue, statistics tell you nothing, except statistics. What about the statistic that he is the player who makes more mistakes than anyone, that leads to a goal. I give statistics a wide berth because they lie. Lol
I didn’t write that last line, Reggie, I copied and pasted it….
I was surprised by it, that’s all….
Neville is right, he has been saying it for years and years and we all know he is right. The culture at this club is dire. I suppose it doesn’t take a genius to see that. Arsenal are weak, Arsenal are disorganized, Arsenal cant tackle and Arsenal cant defend.