Neville singles out Arsenal star who has been ‘struggling for weeks now’ after Newcastle win
Manchester United legend Gary Neville insists he has been disappointed by Martin Zubimendi in recent weeks after watching Arsenal beat Newcastle United 1-0 on Saturday.
The Gunners’ performances have really dropped off in recent weeks with two defeats in a row to Bournemouth and Manchester City, allowing the Citizens back into the Premier League title race.
Arsenal climbed back above Man City in the Premier League on Saturday with a hard-fought 1-0 win over Newcastle United at the Emirates Stadium, as Pep Guardiola’s side played Southampton in the FA Cup.
A number of players have let their levels drop recently with Neville picking out Zubimendi’s form as one of particular concern ahead of the title run-in.
Neville told his Sky Sports podcast: “I thought at the start of the season that Zubimendi was a great signing. He’s been a good player for Arsenal, but right now I was expecting that this would be where Zubimendi would be the player.
“Who’s going to be the difference player? I thought (Viktor) Gyokeres would get the goals for them in these big moments and get to 2-0. His lack of quality at the end was poor on that counter attack. He’s got to do better than that.
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“But you think of what (Andrea) Pirlo is, or (Paul) Scholes or Rodri, Bernardo Silva – the player who can dictate play in a game like this, get Arsenal on the ball, organise and get them with authority and he’s not demonstrating that. He’s struggling in the games and he has done for a few weeks now.”
Arsenal struggled to control midfield against Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes and Joe Willock and Neville pointed to a tactical issue.
Neville added: “(Martin) Odegaard does it better. Odegaard went deeper (today), but the problem is when Odegaard goes deeper, (Declan) Rice then goes deeper and Zubimendi is already deep.
“Then you’ve got three players, or certainly two in deep areas. You can’t have that. You want them to be rotating with each other, and you want one back there to link play with the defence and the full-backs.
“It felt to me today that Zubimendi, Rice and Odegaard got outplayed by that Newcastle midfield. It was 55 per cent possession to Newcastle, 45 per cent to Arsenal… surprising, very surprising.”
Neville: ‘They were far better than the Arsenal midfield’
Man Utd legend Neville continued: “But not surprising in the sense in how I saw that Newcastle midfield play. They were far better than the Arsenal midfield.
“So a bit of thinking for Mikel Arteta to do in terms of his midfield, how they can control games, show authority, keep the rhythm of the passing.”
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