Gary Neville has accused some Arsenal players of shirking their defensive responsibilities in last night’s defeat by Liverpool.
Arsenal posted potentially their worst performance of the whole campaign as Jurgen Klopp’s side eased to a 3-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium.
Only one Gunners player spent most of the game in Liverpool’s half of the field and that was playmaker Martin Odegaard.
The rest of Mikel Arteta’s team were stuck chasing shadows in their own half and even the Spaniard admitted after the game that his side should’ve lost by a greater margin.
Off-the-ball running was a feature of Arsenal’s performances during the early days of Arteta’s reign and played a big role in the team winning an FA Cup last season.
But Neville has claimed on Sky Sports that almost half of Arteta’s XI abandoned this last night and cryptically warned some of the players that the former Manchester City assistant might axe them this summer.
He said: “I have to say, when you are carrying too many who don’t want to do the work without the ball, to the extent that those four of five didn’t, then Arteta’s gameplan is gone. Arteta knows where he needs to go. And he has got confirmation of it tonight.”
Well, Arsenal definitely need to strengthen this summer, but last night’s performance was a concern.
Let’s face it, Liverpool are a shadow of the side that won the Premier League title last term but, the fact that they’re still miles clear of Arteta’s side is certainly a bit of a worry.
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