Arsenal suffered a defeat to Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, and that has damaged their chances of beating Liverpool and Manchester City to the Premier League title this season.
Mikel Arteta’s side were expected to win against Aston Villa in the Premier League on Sunday. Arsenal lost the game 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal are now two points behind leaders Manchester City in second place in the league table. Liverpool are level on points with the North London club in third.
BeIN Sport presenter Richard Keys has given his take on the defeat for Arsenal. The former Sky Sports presenter has slammed manager Arteta for his team selection.
Keys has noted that Arteta did not include midfielder Jorginho in the starting lineup. Martin Odegaard, Declan Rice and Kai Havertz were the three players in midfield.
Havertz has been playing in attack, but against Villa, Gabriel Jesus played down the middle in a three-man attack.
Oleksandr Zinchenko started at left-back for Arsenal, and Keys does not rate the £30 million (Sky Sports) Ukraine international, who moves into midfield from his defensive position.
Richard Keys slams Arsenal left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko
Keys wrote on his website: “I also felt he played the wrong team. I notice Piers Morgan made the point Arsenal still don’t have a centre-forward, but that wasn’t the problem for me.
“They’ve been playing with one. Ok, Havertz isn’t a natural 9, but he’d been in good form operating as a centre-forward with five in eight league games.
“Also in really good form – Declan Rice, who I’ve previously said I wanted to see a lot more from. Arteta made a subtle change recently – playing Jorginho – which allowed Rice to start bossing games in the way he used to at West Ham.
“So why change it Sunday? Rice was back to being Declan Nice, tippy-tappying about allowing Zinchenko to try and run the midfield. What is Arteta’s obsession with crow-barring Zinchenko into his team? Is he really so important?
“If I was Rice I’d be furious. I’d be asking ‘why pay £100m for me – only to ask me to play second fiddle to that busy fool’? Zinchenko doesn’t affect games in the same way Rice does.
“Zinchenko’s inclusion also means a different role for Havertz of course. The whole balance of the team has to be different.
“I guess the answer is that Arteta wants us to believe he’s as clever as Guardiola, whose also made baffling team-selections in the past – proving to be too clever for his own good – just as Arteta was on Sunday.”
Arsenal will bounce back
I can understand all the criticism that Arsenal are getting at the moment. The Gunners were really disappointing against Aston Villa.
But we must not forget that Villa are a good team as well. After all, the Villans could finish fourth in the Premier League table this season.
I am confident that Arsenal will bounce back from the defeat to Villa.
It is not going to be easy for the North London club to beat Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League in midweek, but I am sure that they will pick up all three points from the Premier League match against Wolverhampton Wanderers next weekend.
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