Ian Wright Criticizes Arsenal Star and Delivers Direct Message to Mikel Arteta About Ethan Nwaneri
The Arsenal legend expressed strong criticism towards the Gunners, highlighting several players in his harsh assessment.
Ian Wright pointed out that Mikel Merino has not yet adjusted to the pace of Premier League football. He also noted that Ethan Nwaneri is facing significant pressure at such a young age.
In the 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United, Merino managed to produce Arsenal’s only shot on target but gave the ball away five times. He failed to make a successful tackle before being substituted after an hour.
Nwaneri, who is just 17, replaced Gabriel Martinelli at the same time and completed all six of his passes despite having only 11 touches; however, he could not help avert the defeat. Wright implied that his fellow players did not assist him.
Wright criticized Arsenal’s lack of creativity during the match and dismissed the notion that they could blame the absence of Martin Odegaard due to injury. He raised concerns about the summer choices to loan out Fabio Vieira to Porto and to sell Emile Smith Rowe to Fulham, both of whom are attacking midfielders.
“Yeah, there were [too many players off-key] today,” he told Premier League Productions. “Odegaard has been out for a while now. Fabio Vieira, we hadn’t seen too much of him, and he was a player meant to be in the same mould.
“Emile Smith Rowe has moved on. We have seen Ethan Nwaneri come on, a youngster who’s got to come on in a game for a team that’s trying to challenge for the title. It’s a lot of pressure on him.”
Wright believes that Merino had little impact in the midfield during the match at St James’ Park. He expressed his frustration with the Gunners’ current position in the season, especially with the looming possibility of them falling out of the top four by the end of the weekend.
“You just feel like, at this stage of the season with 10 games in, we should not be playing and being as tepid as we are,” Wright added. “Not creating enough, not putting them under enough pressure.
“I thought Merino wasn’t tight enough in and around the midfield, I think he’s still getting up to speed. It really is quite frustrating to be 10 games in and feeling like you do now.
“That’s only because we know tough it is to try and chase down a Manchester City. One shot on target against Bournemouth, one shot on target today – it’s not good enough for a team going for a title.
“There’s a lot of work to be done in that dressing room. We can’t keep looking and saying we’re missing Martin Odegaard, because we know we’re missing that.”
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