Pablo Mari had a very difficult Premier League opener with Arsenal last week.
The Gunners were stunned by newly-promoted Brentford, who secured a 2-0 win over Mikel Arteta’s side on day one of the new season.
Mari struggled throughout and with Arsenal coming up against Romelu Lukaku on Sunday, the new Chelsea hitman could rip his Spanish counterpart to shreds.
The former Flamengo defender has been quite hit and miss since Edu secured a £6.8 million deal for the player, which rose by £1 million against the Bees in what was his 20th game for the North Londoners.
There’s many Arsenal fans who have reservations over the player and the same is evidently true of Gabby Agbonlahor, based on his comments on Wednesday.
He told talkSPORT: “Mari, he’s okay on the ball but he’s slow. He’s weak.”
Holding to come in?
With Chelsea being among the favourites to win the Premier League this season, Sunday could be nasty for Arsenal – very nasty, particularly with Lukaku set for his second debut.
And therefore you wonder if Arteta could swap Mari for Rob Holding in a partnership with £50 million summer signing Ben White.
It’s still early, but White didn’t cover himself in glory against Brentford either and it would be interesting to see how he fares alongside Holding, arguably a better central defender than Mari.
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