Wright hits out at ‘soft’ Arsenal as he makes PSG prediction after Arteta confirms injury blow
Ian Wright has hit out at the Arsenal defending as the Gunners threw away a 1-0 lead to lose 2-1 against Bournemouth in Premier League on Saturday.
Arsenal took the lead when Declan Rice rounded the goalkeeper to score in the first half but two bits of poor defending from set-pieces allowed the Cherries to take all three points.
Dean Huijsen scored an unchallenged header from an Antoine Semenyo long throw before Evanilson bundled home a corner kick on 75 minutes to secure victory.
On Bournemouth’s two goals, Arsenal legend Wright told Premier League Productions: “The two goals were soft goals. I don’t want to dig the boys out because I know what is coming and I know how much it means to them. But at the same time you do need to out in a better performance than that.”
Wright added: “For the first goal, I think it’s a really good goal from where he is but the marking.
“Both defenders are not looking at the player who is about to score. That was really strange to see especially when you know how diligent Arsenal are with their defensive work but not this season they haven’t been as good from set pieces.
“So to see them concede two goals like that at this stage of the season is disappointing, I know they are knackered, they must be physically and mentally but they have to go for that last push. They have to finish it off.
“When you look at that second goal, no one challenges. The ball is great but if you look at Odegaard he is not looking at the ball he is reacting off the man.
“If he is faced around, maybe the same as Lewis-Skelly he can have a better opportunity to move into a position to stop that. He can’t see anything even if it has come off his arm.
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“It is a concern. The biggest concern though is how static we were. We don’t have Gabriel to organise things and be a bit more aggressive. But the way we were in those incidents, no one seemed to be doing anything. it seemed very easy. It is poor defending.”
Arsenal lost the first leg of their Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain in midweek with the Gunners now having to go to France and win on Wednesday.
When sked if Arsenal can still do it, Wright said: “Yes they can.”
Jurrien Timber was ruled out of the Gunners’ clash with Bournemouth on Saturday with a knock and Arteta wasn’t sure if the Dutchman would be fit to face PSG.
On Timber, Arteta said: “Confident? No.
“At the moment no because he wasn’t able to play here and we play again in four days.”
