Rio Ferdinand has slammed Arsenal’s players for their poor performance in Aston Villa’s 1-0 win.
The Gunners have been in fine form for much of the last two months, but they needed to respond to their 2-1 loss to Wolves in the Midlands in their last game.
They couldn’t do that after an early Ollie Watkins goal ensured that Villa did the double over them for the first time in more than 25 years.
Even in the defeat against Wolves, Arsenal started brightly and put up a great fight which ensured that the scores remained respectable.
They didn’t do that in this match, with the likes of Alexandre Lacazette proving to be ineffective for much of his time on the field.
Ferdinand was on punditry duty on BT Sport and claimed that the Gunners started the game poorly, lacking concentration, and that was how most of their first half went.
When they looked better in the second half, they lacked the cutting edge, with their attackers letting them down.
‘Powder puff today,’ Ferdinand said as quoted by the Metro.
‘They started off on the worst possible footing, mistake, lack of concentration and they definitely didn’t recover for the rest of the first half.
‘Second half they were much improved but without that cutting edge.
‘They didn’t have that cutting edge. The attacking players that have been doing really well for them in recent weeks, today they just didn’t turn up.’
When you get performances like today, the manager either isnt getting through to the players or they aren’t playing as he wants. Either way its not working. This isnt the first time this year we have played like scared robots.
As long as Xhaka plays in this team, we will not move forward!!
Said it here b4 dat he is slow, hesitant n not forward-minded for a central midfielder!!..
In 2014/15/16, it’s was Cazorla or Ramsey playing in that position with Couquelin/Arteta/Flamini as DM, and Ozil as attacking midfield, never a Left-footed Laggard in the middle!!..
Same as Auba, Laca, Willian n even Pepe..Slow,lazy,tired and put on ‘defeatist’ facial expressions in matches..😏😒😒..
Can’t wait for them all to leave in the summer!!
MA has to get his acts together Asap!! Arsenal FC remains an English n European football giant!!
Vinnie2000,shame on you for the hatred on Xhaka,what did he do wrong in the game? The hate on Xhaka can lead you to early grave
John this is the exact problem with fans that don’t fully understand football.
I agree Xhaka had a decent game and looked alright and thats good enough for most fans like you.
The reality is he may have made no direct mistakes but those few seconds he slows the game down is what stops the full team attacking and let’s the opposition get into position….it’s EPL, those 2 seconds make a massive difference.
Maybe you haven’t playdd competitive sports so you dont understand but it costs us every game
PJ-SA, what I can’t understand with Xhaka, is why he became reticent to shoot from outside the box. Wenger discouraged him, but he is no longer here. Long range accurate shooting is a skill Xhaka has in his locker, but is under utilised.
I agree with you that even though he is playing consistently, Arsenal needs an upgrade, due to Xhaka’s lack pace, both foot and thought.
I would like to see Odegaard or Ceballos playing alongside Partey, with either ESR or Odegaard as #10 for a faster more attacking midfield.
Ferdinand is completely right, it was a powderpuff performance today. Don’t any of our coach’s tell the players that they can shoot from the edge of the box, and why oh why was William put on in place of Martinelli. I like Arteta and hope he succeeds but he does make some strange decisions.
Instead of Martinelli…..
I can see why he swapped Partey for Willian instead of GM. It was about keeping some balance to the team – Willian is a better passer and better at delivering the ball into the box, whereas Martinelli is more of a winger/forward who gets onto passes inside the box. I don’t think it was a question of who is the better player. Maybe he got it wrong, but there was some reasoning behind it.