Former Arsenal striker Charlie Nicholas has named three defenders that he expects to leave Arsenal this summer.
Since Mikel Arteta became the club’s manager, he has overseen some great improvements to the team and individual players.
Some players that have been written off under previous managers now seem to have become better players overnight.
This shows just how impressive Arteta is as a manager and the Spaniard will hope that his players can keep their level of performance and help them qualify for European competition at the end of this season.
Charlie Nicholas is, however, sceptical of the possibility of Sokratis, David Luiz, and Shkodran Mustafi all becoming better players and he reckons that they would all leave in the summer.
He doesn’t expect Luiz to be given a new Arsenal deal and he also thinks that Arteta will realise that his team would be better without Sokratis and Mustafi.
“The break probably came at a decent time for Arsenal,” Nicholas told Sky Sports.
“They were improving under Mikel Arteta. Has he brought himself time like people have been saying? I don’t think so. All he has done has worked on a strategy a bit more.
“The reality stares you straight in the face – Arsenal are ninth with 40 points. I look at the table and Arsenal have 13 draws in 28 games, yet they have only lost six all season.
“I would like to be more enthusiastic, but I can’t. You can work with Sokratis Papastathopoulos, David Luiz, and Shkodran Mustafi and get them to improve, but they will not improve by much.
“Luiz will move on next season and Arteta will know that Sokratis and Mustafi are all seemingly pitching to be sold.”
