Arsenal legend Ian Wright has now taken issue with one decision Mikel Arteta made as the Gunners took on Bayern Munich.
Arsenal had to fight back to earn a 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich in the first-leg of their Champions League quarter-final clash on Tuesday night.
The Gunners started well as Bukayo Saka gave them an early lead with a well-placed finished into the bottom corner. However, as the first half grew on, nerves seem to get the better of a lot of the Arsenal defenders. A couple of costly errors allowed Bayern Munich to get back into the game and turn the scoreline around via a Serge Gnabry strike and a Harry Kane penalty.
When they did get on the ball, Mikel Arteta‘s men were overly-keen to play forwards quickly and to try to take the game to the opposition. Instead, all they often achieved, in the first half especially, was only to leave themselves exposed to counter-attacks. The German giants had enough quality in their ranks to take advantage of this weakness in the hosts’ game plan.
How Gabriel Jesus salvaged Arsenal draw v Bayern Munich
The Spanish coach made changes after the break in an effort to bring some additional calm to the pitch. Arteta introduced Oleksandr Zinchenko, Gabriel Jesus, and Leandro Trossard to the fray during the second half.
Trossard was able to make Arsenal history with his goal against Bayern Munich, and also levelled the scores at a crucial time. Arsenal fans were delighted with impact Jesus was able to have too. The Brazilian brought extra dynamism to the game and produced some wonderful touches in the opposition box as he set up the Belgian for his equalising goal.
No doubt, Arteta and his Arsenal players will have learned some valuable lessons from this encounter. It will be fascinating to see how the Gunners change their approach when it comes to the second-leg of this quarter-final, due to take place at the Allianz Arena on April 17th.
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Ian Wright criticises Mikel Arteta selection policy
Ian Wright was surprised by the tactical approach in this match, and would no doubt like to see a different setup when the North London outfit head to Germany.
The former striker was shocked by the omission of Jesus from the starting XI on Tuesday night. Kai Havertz was chosen to lead the line instead.
The 27-year-old was able to come on and prove his worth by digging his side out of a hole, of course, but things might have been different had he been included in the team from the off.
Speaking to his Wrighty’s House podcast, Wright said, “I would like to have seen, maybe, Jesus start that game for some reason…he came on and he just gave us a bit of something different when he got on the ball and the ball was on the ground, rather than Kai’s physical presence, trying to link play.”