“if I’m Arteta, I won’t start this player I’m the second leg because the result will be worse, he looks scared and deserves to be dropped to the bench immediately”- Arsenal Legend Arsene Wenger warns Mikel Arteta not to play £6M Arsenal player who looked terrified against Porto in the second leg next month
“if I’m Arteta, I won’t start this player I’m the second leg because the result will be worse, he looks scared and deserves to be dropped to the bench immediately”- Arsenal Legend Arsene Wenger warns Mikel Arteta not to play £6M Arsenal player who looked terrified against Porto in the second leg next month
‘Looked scared’: Wenger says £6m Arsenal player looked terrified against Porto
Arsenal are in danger of Champions League elimination.
The Gunners lost 1-0 against Porto on Wednesday evening and they’ve got a real mountain to climb in the second-leg now.
Arsenal, quite simply, didn’t turn up against Porto on Wednesday, and many of their key players seemed overawed by the occasion of playing in the Champions League knockout stages.
Many of these players hadn’t played in such a game before, and there was an element of fear in the side it has to be said.
Speaking on Virgin Media Sport, Richard Dunne has been discussing Arsenal’s showing against Porto, and he highlighted Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz as two players who didn’t look up for it on the day.
Gabriel Martinelli looked scared
Dunne spoke about the £6m man and the German.
“Martinelli looked scared, he’d get past one player and then dangle a toe in and that would be him away from it. Havertz was pulling out of 50/50s, they looked weak mentally up front, that front five,” Dunne said.
Out of character
Dunne is right, Martinelli did look scared against Porto, and that’s so surprising because that’s so unlike him.
Ever since coming to England, Martinelli has been a fearless winger who has taken on every single challenge that has been presented to him head on,
However, against Porto, he wasn’t playing his normal game, he looked shackled and afraid to make any mistakes, and that led to what was an incredibly flat showing from the north London club.
Arsenal need to find a way to reinstall that confidence in Martinelli ahead of the second-leg, because another performance like that won’t help Arsenal in their quest to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
Martinelli put in a poor performance against Porto, and he, quite simply, needs to improve.
