Arsenal ‘can’t win the Premier League’ with ‘cautious’ Arteta after Man City decision that ‘made no sense’
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta was “cautious” against Manchester City and “can’t win the Premier League” if he doesn’t change his mentality, says Steve Nicol.
The Gunners were held to a 1-1 draw against Pep Guardiola’s men on Sunday and Arteta has been criticised for his overly defensive, risk-averse approach to another big game.
The Arsenal manager was slammed after losing at Liverpool in August and now pundits are unimpressed after he dropped Ebere Eze for Sunday’s Premier League visit of Man City.
Mikel Merino starting over Eze and Leandro Trossard being given the nod on the left wing are the two big talking points and Arteta clearly realised he got it wrong, bringing Merino and Noni Madueke off at half-time for Eze and Bukayo Saka.
Former Liverpool defender Nicol delivered a scathing assessment of Arteta’s approach to the game, claiming the Spaniard “just wanted to be strong” rather than taking the game to City with an attacking line-up.
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“At the end of the day, he (Arteta) can talk all he wants about how they dominated and this and that, but he started the game to be strong. He didn’t start the game to go and win the game. He just wanted to be strong,” Nicol told ESPN FC.
“Instead of starting the game trying to win it, he was cautious. He can’t win the Premier League if you don’t go and win it. Nobody’s going to hand it to you. You have to step on the field with all the quality and the players, you have to go and actually win the thing and get them to the top of the table.
“You’ve got a guy like Eze sitting on the bench. Are you telling me Eze shouldn’t be playing ahead of Trossard? It just makes no sense. It just shows that he was cautious, and it backfired, because it took them to make the changes in the second half.
“Madueke wasn’t well, that’s why Saka came on so early. And then he brings Eze on. And surprise, surprise, who plays that ball in behind for Martinelli from the middle of the park? Eze.
“I mean, there’s your answer, there’s what you got wrong. He should have started the game, should have started in the middle, and if not the middle, he should have started in the wide areas.
“It’s okay to start making forward substitutes when you’ve no choice, when you’re behind; how about you go and win the game and let the opposition have all the problems, not bring it all on yourself.
“Arteta only has himself to blame for starting the wrong team.”
Nicol was complimentary of Citizens manager Guardiola, however, after he adapted to how the game was going and essentially parked the bus with several defensive substitutions.
“After this game, I had a strange feeling of respect,” he began. “Guardiola found that Plan B, he coached the way the game was going. They were one-nil up, and he could see that it was pointless having any forwards because they weren’t getting the ball. So you know what? Let’s get some strength on, and let’s just hold on. And he did it.
“You know, none of this, ‘I’m sticking to my principles’ nonsense, all the time about, ‘If we’re going to lose, we’re going to lose doing it my way’, and all that stuff. He actually coached the game the way it needed to be, because there wasn’t any point in keeping Phil Foden on the field.
“I was a little unsure with the Haaland one, because defensively, he’s good in the air; but he just went, you know what, forget all the tactics. Forget all these great coaching things I’ve been doing for 15 years. Whatever it is, this is good old-fashioned defense. Get some big guys on, get some bodies on. Let’s shut up shop.
“Unfortunately, they didn’t quite do it, they almost did it. That’s what coaching is about, you’ve got to coach for what’s happening at that time.”
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