OPINION
Freddie Ljungberg’s Arsenal reign certainly didn’t start the way he would have planned at Norwich City, with his side drawing 2-2.
One of the few positives would have been that his side managed to come from behind twice, although they should have never have been in that position in the first place at Carrow Road.
It wasn’t good enough from Arsenal, who once again disappointed in defence, as both of the Canaries goals coming from the likes of David Luiz sitting back instead of putting pressure on players like Teemu Pukki.
Charlie Nicholas launched a passionate rant about the Gunners on Monday evening, claiming that a number of their players shouldn’t have been near the starting 11 on Sunday.
“They had a bit more spike about them at the weekend but Freddie, why are you picking Shkodran Mustafi?” he wrote on his Sky Sports prediction blog.
“When are you going to learn about Calum Chambers? I also cannot understand how David Luiz is in the team. He just doesn’t want to run. He is only interested when he gets the ball at his feet. Sokratis Papastathopoulos is a shocker and Mustafi is even worse. Granit Xhaka also cannot run.
“Bringing in Joe Willock I understood, but the re-introduction of Xhaka baffled me.”
Nicholas was a fan of bringing in Willock, and Ljungberg would do himself many favours if he gave more youth players a chance against Brighton on Thursday.
The criticism from the Arsenal legend suggests that a number of the Gunners’ players simply aren’t good enough, and a spell on the bench could do them well.
Luiz was the only Arsenal defender not to make a single tackle on Sunday [WhoScored], in another disappointing display. The Brazilian was also slammed by fans in the 2-2 draw against Southampton the week before after his mistake led to Danny Ings opening the scoring.
It isn’t only Nicholas who has picked apart some of Arsenal’s selections this season, and his comments could suggest they need to make changes for the clash against Brighton.
