Olaleye Idowu
Former Arsenal star Theo Walcott has criticised manager Mikel Arteta, insisting that the Spaniard tends to revert to his instincts.
The former England international spoke while calling on Arteta to be smart with his team selection. It suggested that the club’s summer signing Eberechi Eze should be put straight into his starting XI in the Gunners’ next match.
This is coming after Arsenal’s recent Premier League 1-0 loss to Liverpool.
Recall that Eze came off the bench to replace Gabriel Martinelli in the second half at Anfield as the Reds claimed all three points against Arsenal.
“The club have really backed Arteta and now he has options everywhere, but he likes to go back to his instinct of ‘we need to stay in the game’,” Walcott said on the latest episode of It’s Called Soccer.
“It was working up to a certain point, but that is where you bring on the substitutions a little bit earlier – [Eberechi] Eze did so much more with his first two touches than [Gabriel] Martinelli did.
“I said it a couple of weeks ago when Jack Grealish arrived at Everton, and he started the first game on the bench – play them straight away.”
