Former Arsenal player, Ian Wright, has singled out midfielder, Mikel Merino, for blame following the Gunners’ 1-0 loss to Newcastle at St. James’ Park on Saturday.
Wright said that the Spain International did not provide sufficient defensive pressure in Arsenal’s midfield, leading to the defeat.
Merino, who started at St. James’ Park, failed to make an impact in the 60 minutes he spent before he was replaced with Ethan Nwaneri.
Arsenal could not create anything meaningful despite dominating most of the game.
Mikel Arteta’s men only registered one shot on target in the entirety of the match as Newcastle’s early goal from Alexander Isak gave them all three points.
Ian Wright, who was on his punditry duty on Premier League Productions, said, ”Listen, Odegaard has been out for a while now. We talk about our managers… Fabio Vieira we haven’t seen too much of him, he was a player who was supposed to be in the same mold.
”Emile Smith Rowe has moved on, gone to Fulham, and he’s doing okay for himself. We’ve seen Ethan Nwaneri come on, the youngster, and he’s got to come on in a game for a team that’s trying to challenge for the title and it is a lot of pressure on him.
”You just feel that, at this stage of the season, ten games in, we should not be playing and being as tepid as we are, not creating enough, not putting them under enough pressure. I thought, again, Merino wasn’t tight enough in and around the midfield. I think he’s still getting up to speed.”