It looks pretty obvious that Mikel Arteta’s experiment involving Willian didn’t work for Arsenal on Saturday evening.
Arteta’s side slumped to a 1-0 defeat away to Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
But the Arsenal boss tried a little too hard to outwit his former boss Pep Guardiola by using Willian – a winger – as a false nine.
When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was the only striker named in the first XI, it was assumed that the Gabon international would lead the line, but the former Chelsea attacker alternated between an attacking midfield role and the number nine instead.
But despite a lot of running, Willian, who managed 32 touches in 70 minutes, didn’t offer much by way of an attacking threat – less than he was supposed to, anyway.
This is the first time that Arteta has played him in this kind of position and some Arsenal fans on Twitter have sent their Spanish coach the same message, asking for it to also be the last time.
It must be noted that Arteta is still less than a year into his first senior role in management and errors of judgement from time to time are inevitable.
For the most part, the 38-year-old, who led Arsenal to FA Cup glory in August, has consistently made the right decisions, the right choices, so there’s no need for excessive criticism on this matter.
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