Glenn Hoddle has suggested that Mikel Arteta has to teach his players when it becomes too dangerous to play out from the back if they are to avoid the sort of goal that Burnley scored against them in their last match.
The Gunners have continued to play from the back as expected under Arteta, but it went wrong in their game against the Clarets.
Granit Xhaka attempted to pass the ball to David Luiz close to the Arsenal goal and played it straight to Chris Wood who had been pressing the Gunners. It came off him and into Bernd Leno’s net.
The Gunners worked hard, but they couldn’t find a winning goal after Nicolas Pepe missed an open goal and Dani Ceballos hit the post.
Hoddle was asked if Xhaka’s mistake can be coached out of the players or if it was down to them not being talented enough.
He said most teams play from the back now and the Spaniard just needs to tell his players to watch out for when it isn’t convenient and avoid taking that route.
He writes on his Standard Sports’ column: “But there’s so many clubs, not just Arsenal, there comes a time when when is it a real, a real genuine risk of your own goal being at threat? I’ve seen loads of goals this year being given away, goalkeepers trying to pass balls out from the back, Alisson’s done it for Liverpool, [John] Ruddy did it for Wolves, Arsenal [against] Burnley… there’s nothing wrong in playing the ball long at times when it has to go long.
“You cannot coach it out of them, but you can make them aware that they’re going over the line. You do that in training maybe or with videos. You say ‘look, we got away with it but I don’t want us playing in those circumstances, it’s too risky, we will come unstuck, and it’ll be a big game possibly’.”