Petit slams Wenger ‘mistake’ in Arsenal selection

Arsene Wenger’s selection has been at the centre of much talk since he decided to drop Arsenal’s record signing Alexandre Lacazette from the starting line-up against Manchester City, and Emmanuel Petit has continued on that.

The French defender also claims that it was a strange decision to field midfielder Francis Coquelin as a makeshift centre-back in such a big match, but he praises Wenger in a way for trying something different.

Petit said; “Why did he start with Francis Coquelin in central defence? He was booed in the Europa League game, so couldn’t have gone into the game with much confidence.

“It’s a strange decision when you’re facing the most dangerous attacking side in the league.

“To be fair to Arsène, he tried something different – but it was a mistake. Arsenal never really threatened City in the first half.

“Another mistake was not starting with Alexandre Lacazette. He’s a natural goalscorer and physical presence in the penalty area.

“Alexis Sanchez’s work rate, vision and technique are good, but something was missing.”

Every pundit and his family appears to be talking about Wenger’s decision to leave Lacazette on the bench, but he may have had less impact when starting the match, although Olivier Giroud being on the bench should have been enough fresh legs up front to make that similar impact from the bench,

I do feel we were unlucky to lose to a penalty and an offside goal, although the penalty decision for me was correct, although I don’t feel we needed Monreal to take Sterling down as he didn’t appear to have great control over the ball at the time.

Did Coquelin struggle at centre-back? Does Wenger’s selection deserve THIS much criticism given how unlucky we were to be on the end of a 3-1 loss?

Pat J

Tags Arsenal Coquelin lacazette Man City Petit Wenger

8 Comments

  1. Wenger deep down loves to hurt us gunners i think he gets a kick out of it why else do you drop a top signing and play players out of position ://

  2. On not one occasion this season has Wenger picked his strongest starting XI available to him on the day of a game. On not one occasion has Wenger put the starting XI in their correct positions. Now that’s either shocking management, or sabotage!

    I want Kroenke gone just as much as anyone else, but how on earth is he responsible for these mistakes? It wouldn’t matter who owned the club, because it’s down to the manager what he decides to do on match days. The only difference with a different owner is that he/she may have sacked Wenger by now, or not to have given him a contract renewal, but if the new owner showed faith in Wenger, we’d still see the same mistakes repeating themselves game, after game, after game.

    As I’ve said before, the owner can give Wenger the best tools to work with, but it’s ONLY Wenger who decides how to use these tools. Lacazette is a perfect example. Wenger is given a prolific striker, who suits our style of play, and yet Wenger’s has handled Lacazette terribly! Drops him for the big games, subs him almost all of the time. I feel sorry for Lacazette.

    1. Wenger’s selections for this game, particularly not starting Arsenal’s marquee striker Lacazette, are incomprehensible to all but himself!

  3. I felt really bad at seen lacazette on the bench,playing lacazette with ozil and Sanchez would have sent shivers in the spine of man city but he chose to make things so easy for the city team who on a good day I can’t say can beat arsenal. I was really disappointed in Wenger no Giroud, no lacazette then how did he expect to win the game?. Wenger made me cry

  4. Ozil will never send any shivers to anyones’spine. Sanchez, Lacazette, and Walcott can do that. I am tired of these fans who try to praise Ozil for nothing. We really miss the magic feet of Carzola, the work rate of Welbeck, and the pace of Walcott. The starting X1 with Ozil, Ramsey, Xhaka, and Giroud will always be full of complaints. Arsenal cant go far with these four players in the team

  5. Not playing Laca hurts us in more than one way. It might have cost us against City (and Liverpool) but more importantly, it has to negatively impact Laca’s confidence and faith in the manager.

    Wenger has a way of destroying players confidence.

Comments are closed

Top Blog Sponsors