Steve Nicol has told ESPN that Arsenal will find it embarrassing that the only positive from their defeat at home to Chelsea on Sunday was that players showed a lot of spirit at times.
Mikel Arteta’s side suffered a successive loss to start the new Premier League season after an opening-day defeat at Brentford. The Gunners lost both encounters 2-0, to register their worst start to a season in the club’s 118-year history.
Never have the north Londoners previously failed to score during their opening two league games and lose both. Leaving Nicol to fear how the season will unfold for Arsenal, as there were so few positives against Chelsea.
“It’s an indictment of Arsenal that I’m sitting, thinking of something nice to say about them, and what I’m thinking is they showed a lot of spirit at times,” Nicol said. “But that’s surely embarrassing for a club of Arsenal’s stature that somebody’s saying: ‘Well, you’re spirited in your endeavour’.
“You can criticise Arteta all you want. But at the end of the day, when you’ve got players that aren’t good enough to beat the opposition you’re up against, what do you do? It’s not easy to come up with something other than a [Jose] Mourinho, where you stick 11 between the edge of the box and the 35-yard line, and there’s nowhere to go.
“What do you do? You can’t try and outplay a team that’s better than you. Because Chelsea are way better than Arsenal at that, and that’s pretty much the only way Arsenal can do it. Because, as a I said, if they try to fight anybody, they do not look capable of doing that. It’s going to be a long season for them.”
Nicol voices Arsenal concerns again after Chelsea loss
Sunday’s loss to Chelsea marked the second game that Nicol struggled to find any positives for Arsenal. Their shock defeat to newly-promoted Brentford had left the former Liverpool defender worrying how the weekend’s London derby would unfold.
Many Arsenal supporters will be sharing Nicol’s fears of what the season will entail now, too, after losing to Chelsea. Thomas Tuchel’s Blues were clearly the better side across the Emirates Stadium pitch on Sunday, with few positives of note for the hosts.
Arsenal are also in the relegation zone after more than one top-flight fixture for the first time since 1992. To further hammer home how poorly Arteta’s side have started the term. And Nicol’s issues with the quality available in north London only serve to strengthen the scale of the challenge the Spaniard faces to turn Arsenal around after losing to Chelsea.
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