Martin Keown says Mikel Arteta’s tactic creates fear in his players as the Gunners struggle to play as he wants.
Arteta has insisted that his team plays out from the back, but they have struggled with that sometimes.
The latest example of how much damage that tactic can cause was when Granit Xhaka played the ball straight towards the body of Chris Wood in their last game against Burnley.
The Clarets’ attacker was pressing the Gunners in the box and Xhaka under-hit his pass straight at the New Zealander and it ended in the back of the Arsenal net.
The Gunners will continue to play that way and Keown admits they can do that.
However, he says they have to get the balance right to know when they should pass and when it is too risky to do that.
“You want to play from the back and you don’t want to create fear in your players,” he told Jim White on talkSPORT.
“But, at the same time, you don’t want them to make mistakes. You’ve got to get that balance right and, at the moment, Leno is a player where there are question marks and microscopes on him now.
“[Emiliano] Martinez was allowed to leave and go to Aston Villa and if you think about the back end of last season where Martinez came in, was that the difference?
“They went on to win the FA Cup, he played in the Community Shield final.
“It will cost Arsenal, ultimately, in this competition if they don’t learn to stop making silly mistakes.”
Arsenal has enjoyed much success with this approach and only need to be more careful as Keown has suggested.