Tim Sherwood has claimed that Emile Smith Rowe didn’t want to pass to Bukayo Saka during Arsenal’s goalless draw against Brighton because he wasn’t Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
The former title-winner thinks, when Smith Rowe was put through on goal, he had the chance to pass the ball to Saka but he ‘turned it down’.
Sherwood feels if Aubameyang was the one in Saka’s position then he would have been ‘forced’ to play the ball to him, as he told Premier League Productions (02/10/21 at 7:45 pm)
Whilst Brighton dominated proceedings against Mikel Arteta’s side from the weekend, the away side did have a number of guilt-edge chances.
One of them included Smith Rowe being put through on goal, after a wonderfully first-time ball was threaded through by Thomas Partey, but the Hale-End academy product ended up going away from goal and hitting his tame effort straight at the keeper.
And this is what Sherwood made of what turned out to be a crucial moment during the game.
“That was their best move, the third man run running off the back of Lallana,” said Sherwood.
“He (ESR) should have passed it. If it’s Aubameyang down the middle then he would have forced him into passing that.
“But because it was Saka, he turned it down and tried to go down a narrow angle.”
Smith Rowe would have been kicking himself at his decision-making, at that point because, even if he didn’t pass, he could have made that opportunity a lot more clear cut for himself.
But, overall in the game, it was a standout performance from the Englishman, who has probably been one of Arsenal’s best players this season.
Both his and Saka’s stock is continuing to rise, regardless of what is being produced around them.
And that’s a credit to their mindset and talent, which is beaming a rather large and much-needed light on this Arsenal team.
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