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Jamie Carragher thinks one Arsenal player was really ineffective last night, Mikel Arteta to blame

Giuseppe Labellarte

Fri 7 May 2021 20:45, UK

Arsenal’s season continues to go from bad to worse, with Mikel Arteta’s charges suffering elimination from the Europa League on Thursday night.

The Gunners hosted Villarreal at the Emirates Stadium in their semi-final second leg hoping to overturn a 2-1 deficit from the first encounter in Spain.

Arteta opted for an attacking line-up, naming Nicolas Pepe, Emile Smith Rowe, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka in midfield, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leading the line.

However, the Arsenal manager’s gamble didn’t exactly pay off, the Gunners looking toothless for much of the game.

In the end, a goalless draw wasn’t enough to stop Arsenal from falling at the penultimate hurdle.

Jamie Carragher told CBS Sports on Paramount+ () that Arteta’s decision to put so many attacking players on at the same time ended up holding Aubameyang back.

“You come to the second leg and you see all the attacking players on the pitch,” said Carragher. “And that might excite Arsenal thinking ‘we are ‘going for it’.

“But sometimes you can have too many attacking players on the pitch because you cannot get the ball back. And that was the problem.

“Aubameyang hardly touched the ball in the first half because there was no one in midfield to win the ball back and give them the ball.

“So again, I thought he (Arteta) got it massively wrong again (tactically), really and almost played into Villarreal’s hands.”

TBR View:

Can’t argue with what Carragher is saying – Arteta got it wrong, plain and simple.

Aubameyang, who let’s not forget wasn’t fully fit, tried his best and hit the woodwork twice but ultimately he was isolated for large parts of the game.

The Arsenal captain only got touches of the ball and ended up coming off on 79 minutes.