Mikel Arteta has been urged to drop Gabriel Martinelli and provides Max Dowman more starts after Arsenal’s disappointing 2-1 loss to Bournemouth.
Martinelli was returned to the starting lineup on Saturday after his impressive midweek cameo, which saw him arrange Kai Havertz’s winner against Sporting CP.
However the Brazilian endured a forgettable afternoon in north London, touching the ball just seven times in the primary half before being replaced by Leandro Trossard shortly after the break.
Arsenal’s substitutes, which also included Dowman and Eberechi Eze, did little to wrestle back momentum for Mikel Arteta’s side, and Alex Scott’s strike ultimately condemned the Gunners to their third defeat in 4 matches in all competitions.
After the sport, former Premier League striker Jay Bothroyd questioned why Arteta opted to begin Martinelli given his indifferent form for big swathes of this season.
Chatting with Sky Sports, he said: ‘After I checked out that starting team today, I used to be considering to myself, ‘okay, Martinelli made an assist in the course of the week. It was an excellent assist. But he hasn’t been adequate this 12 months.’
As a substitute of Martinelli, Bothroyd urged Arteta to offer more starts to 16-year-old Dowman to assist Arsenal rediscover their attacking spark and recover from the road within the league.
‘So far as I’m concerned, Max Dowman needs to begin,’ he added. ‘I don’t care no more. Arsenal must go over the road.
‘That child, when he plays, he’s fearless. He desires to ball. He goes at players. He might lose it, but he goes at them.’
Bothroyd also criticised Arsenal striker Viktor Gyokeres for post-match comments by which he suggested that a ‘dry pitch’ had affected Arsenal’s performance.
‘Listen, to me, that’s just silliness,’ Bothroyd added. ‘I used to be at the sport, I saw the pitch. The pitch looked perfect to me.
‘The sprinklers were on before the sport. They were on at half-time. Each teams actually play on that very same pitch. I don’t know for those who know that.
‘Each teams play on it, and Bournemouth took the opportunities once they got here. I hear what he’s saying when he talks about being positive going forward, because I believe in this example, you form of have to take a look at that, but at the identical time, you actually need to analyse what happened today since it was really poor.
‘I believe the xG (expected goals) was 0.19 in open play at home. That’s just not adequate for a team of the calibre of players that Arsenal have. It’s just way off. It’s just not adequate.
‘Too persistently they get right into a position where they are only knocking the ball across the pitch.
‘Raya is literally touching the ball. He has the ball at his feet, probably greater than every other player on the pitch. And clearly, you’re 80 yards from goal. I don’t get that.’
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