Arsenal legend Ian Wright has made it clear he thinks that some of the team’s players will have been questioning Mikel Arteta’s selection choices against Manchester City.
The Gunners drew 1-1 at home to Man City thanks to a stoppage time equaliser from substitute Gabriel Martinelli, but many fans and pundits will feel the game was there to be won.
City set up quite defensively at the Emirates Stadium after being thrashed 5-1 there last season, but Arsenal didn’t really take the initiative as many expected.
Arteta started both Martinelli and Eberechi Eze on the bench in a slightly surprising move, and Wright discussed that decision with his fellow pundits on today’s episode of The Overlap.
Arsenal players could be affected by Mikel Arteta’s choices
Wright clearly agreed with the likes of Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher that Arteta should have played Martinelli and Eze from the start of this game.
Neville then asked the former Arsenal striker if he felt those surprise calls could also affect the confidence of the rest of the players in the dressing room.
Wright responded by suggesting, if he’s being “honest”, that while players might not be directly asking about the line up, he did suggest they might have been expecting something different.
The pundit said that had happened to him before during his playing days, and he agreed with Neville’s claim that it was essentially a 45 minutes wasted by Arsenal.
Arteta knew he got it wrong, according to Neville
Neville also made it clear he felt Arteta knew he got his selection decisions wrong as he changed it at half time.
The Spanish tactician immediately brought on Eze for the second half and attacked more, suggesting he was aware he’d started too cautiously and that it wasn’t working.
What do you make of how Arsenal approached this game? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
The only thing I know is Arteta is not a good coach that’s all,iam just waiting for the day he will be sack.
Bring in a Conte I tell you with this team you are sure of major trophy with ease.
Let us stop deceiving ourselves man,this guy is not good at all,you play players outside position just because you don’t want them to bench your favorite player s
Arsenal players are now dropping form.
He lacks confidence on players
PLEASE ARSENAL BOARD SACK THIS GUY.
Arsen Wenger didn’t have the money “Arteta” had yet he qualified Arsenal in the champions league 19 straight years with a thin squad. Leicester City didn’t have a the squad Arteta had, yet they won the league,and Arsenal was the only team that,defeated Leicester City home and away that year when Leicester won the league. Honestly there’s a mystery going on Arsenal since the “Kroenke’s” bought Arsenal and I don’t think Arteta is the problem,the problem is the energy behind the money that, the Kroenke’s used to buy Arsenal football club, maybe when the made a deal with the “devil” to buy Arsenal football club,one of the conditions was never to win a major trophy. The curse of Arsenal are the “Kroenke’s” and there’s no coach who’ll come to Arsenal and win any major as long as the Kroenke’s are there,the problem is more of spiritual things “occultism”.Just look at the rate of bad luck I have watched Liverpool training it’s more intense than that what Arsenal is doing I don’t know the last time “Vandijk or Moh Sallah” had an injury but for Arsenal a player will be will be waving his hand to say goodbye to his family and friends to join Arsenal boom he’s injured. The Kroenke’s are the curse and this might lead to something disastrous leading to human sacrifice like it happened to Annfield Liverpool.
The great football managers, such as Alex Ferguson went into every single game wanting and expecting to win. My reading of Arteta is that he goes into every important game not wanting to lose. These are completely different states of mind, one for winners the other for losers.
Arsenal are parked with great and dedicated players but a few are not consistent. Also, it’s true that selection is a problem for the coach. As young as the season is now I am sceptical that Gyokeres is the right striker for Arsenal. Then, the defence tends to lose concentration, how they allowed Harland so free to score MC’s goal is very questionable.
I believe there are several reasons why Wenger’s teams were better, and the same for Fergie’s.
Both managers had GREAT Goal scorers., I struggle to think of a great goal scorer under Arteta.
Both managers had great and creative midfielders. (Zubamendi, Rice and GWanerie) are fairly average at the highest levels. A big flaw is that there is no real pace between them!
However, let’s wait and see where we are at the end of the season.
My Verdict is to keep Arteta thru the end of this season, and then re appraise him!!!
Both managers had teams with excellent Center Backs.
Arsenal’s current crop of CB’s is very good, but not “exceptionally” better than some of Wenger’s pairings, or Fergie’s.
So all this crowing we hear about our bench sounds promising,
but there is NO substitute for “TOP CLASS PLAYERS”, and I think we currently have only one, and that is Saka.
I would have preferred we had spent the Madueke money on Rodrygo.
Unfortunately Madueke might look good sometimes, but he looks too much like Sterling for my taste.
Lots of activity but very few chances created.