Former Premier League winner Chris Sutton has lambasted the Arsenal players for their performances against Norwich City on Sunday.
In Freddie Ljungberg’s first game in charge of the club, it was more of the same as the Gunners were held to a 2-2 draw at Carrow Road. Sutton wasn’t impressed.
“David Luiz was kept in the team by Ljungberg and he didn’t defend any differently,” he wrote in his Daily Mail column. “Shkodran Mustafi was brought in alongside him and he can be a bit of a car crash at times.
“Calum Chambers does his best at right back but can look like a fish out of water. Sead Kolasinac should not be starting over Kieran Tierney at left back. Mesut Ozil started — I like the German playmaker — but he struggled to influence the game.”
Is Sutton being too harsh, here?
In a word, no.
The performance from this Arsenal team in general was a poor one on Sunday. We saw some positive signs in terms of how they played when they were in possession, but the same old frailties were exposed when they didn’t have the ball.
As Sutton says, Chambers isn’t a right back. He was forced to play there against Norwich but he’s simply not good enough on the right flank. Meanwhile Kolasinac over Tierney is just ridiculous, come on now. That was a bizarre decision.
The less said about the two centre backs the better, while Ozil simply produced nothing. The German was given a chance and he didn’t take it – not by a long shot.