Former Arsenal star, Michael Thomas reckons the club’s midfield was the main problem spot in their 1-0 defeat at the hands of Nottingham Forest.
Mikel Arteta is missing key midfield players and used both Charlie Patino and Albert Sambi Lokonga in the FA Cup game.
Both players didn’t do enough to help Arsenal control the game and the Gunners’ attack was starved of supply.
Forest took good advantage of Arsenal’s weakness and stayed in the match for as long as possible before delivering the sucker punch late on.
In an exclusive interview with CaughtOffside, Thomas names Bernd Leno as one player who did his best, but everyone else struggled.
He said: “I think the whole team bar Leno in goal were below par. They never got going and couldn’t handle the intensity of the game.
“The middle of the park was a particularly big issue. I know we had players missing which didn’t help. Lokonga and Patino couldn’t get hold of it which was open for all to see.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Considering we could be without Elneny and Partey for the rest of this month, we probably need midfield reinforcements now.
The performance in that game also brings back question marks over the decision to allow Ainsley Maitland-Niles to leave the club so early in the transfer window.
We should have delayed his inevitable loan move to AS Roma, but now we have to hope Arteta can get a strong team together for the upcoming matches against Liverpool and Tottenham.
Yes and water is wet!
OT Spurs getting a smack although Andre Mariner is trying his best to get them on the score sheet