Micah Richards has now named two Arsenal players he believed Mikel Arteta should have played from the beginning against Aston Villa.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing, as they say, but it does seem as if Mikel Arteta made some peculiar choices in his Arsenal line up yesterday.
In comparison to the Bayern Munich line up last Tuesday, which surely has to be considered the club’s strongest XI right now, Arteta made three changes to his team.
Jakub Kiwior, Jorginho and Gabriel Martinelli all dropped out, being replaced by Oleksandr Zinchenko, Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus.
Jesus in particular was superb against Bayern off of the bench, and deserved a chance to start once again.
The Brazilian has done very little wrong when fit and starting, even if his performance was eventually deemed a ‘problem’ yesterday.
But Arsenal didn’t necessarily lose the game because of their front line, even if they were missing chances.
In fact, it was their lack of control in midfield that killed them in the second half.
Micah Richards can’t understand why Mikel Arteta didn’t start Jorginho or Thomas Partey
Speaking on ‘The Rest Is Football’ podcast, Micah Richards was really surprised that Mikel Arteta didn’t start Jorginho or Thomas Partey.
He thought it was the perfect game for either of the duo against Unai Emery’s impressive side, one that required as much control as possible in the middle.
Richards explained: “In terms of the energy that Aston Villa bring when you have Jorginho and Partey who has come into the team recently as well, I just thought it was a game for them.
“It’s one where you look back and Arteta is a manager, he has to make the decision, but at times in the second half they got overrun in midfield. It was too easy for Aston Villa.
“They needed a bit more steel in there, even if we look at Declan Rice there and his position – he can play holding or as a number eight.
“But when Partey or Jorginho doesn’t play they just don’t have the same stability.”
Oleksandr Zinchenko’s inclusion was the most baffling decision
Whilst Micah Richards believed that Mikel Arteta’s mistake was not including a number six to release Declan Rice, it felt as if the issues were stemming from elsewhere.
Oleksandr Zinchenko delivered another questionable performance at left-back, displaying some peculiar decision making.
Zinchenko and Rice often found themselves overlapping in the middle, passing the ball to each other from just one-yard away, something wasn’t quite right.
And at this point of the season, without trying to scapegoat players, especially given how good Arsenal have been, it seems that either Jakub Kiwior or Takehiro Tomiyasu are much better options.
Of course, Mikel Arteta will probably just be counting down the days until Jurrien Timber is fit for Arsenal, a player who changes everything.
All that being said, the Arsenal manager certainly didn’t agree with something Ollie Watkins said at full-time yesterday.
The post 'The game for them': Micah Richards names the two Arsenal players Mikel Arteta should've started vs Villa appeared first on TBR Football.