“You signed one of the best player in the summer and decided to bench him, you’ll never win the Premier League doing that”: Arsenal’s legend Thierry Henry names the biggest mistake Mikel Arteta made yesterday during Manchester City game
It doesn’t take much for the mood to change in football, and Arsenal are the perfect example of that.
Just a few days ago, there was a real sense of optimism around the club following big wins over Nottingham Forest and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League.
However, their performance against Manchester City left a lot to be desired, and were it not for a late equaliser from Gabriel Martinelli, the Gunners would have lost their second Premier League game of the season.
It was a game to forget for much of the Arsenal team, and while Mikel Merino has received plenty of criticism, there is another star that Mikel Arteta should consider dropping for the game this week.
The Arsenal players who underwhelmed vs City
Now it is important to clarify that few, if any, Arsenal players were genuinely terrible yesterday.
After all, while the result was hugely disappointing, the Gunners would not have earned a point against a team like City if they played terribly.
With that said, there were more than a handful of starters who underwhelmed in a big way, like Leandro Trossard.
The Belgian did little to dispel the idea of him being a better impact player than starter, as in 84 minutes of action, he amassed a combined expected goal and assists figure of just 0.15, failed to complete a single cross, didn’t register a shot on target and was accurate with just 78% of his passes.
Someone who had some pretty impressive numbers for the game, but made one consequential mistake, was Gabriel Magalhães.
The Brazilian stalwart found himself far too high up the pitch and mistimed a tackle in the lead-up to Erling Haaland’s opener, which meant he had no chance of catching the Norwegian.
Finally, it was another outing that showed a midfield of Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi, and Merino does not work.
