Arsenal suffered a massive body blow in the opening game of the season when Manchester City outclassed them on every department and eased to a comfortable 2-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. The Gunners need to bounce back almost immediately if they are to challenge for a place in the top 4 this season. This weekend’s match against Chelsea serves as an ideal opportunity for them to rectify some of the mistakes from the City defeat and get a victory under their belt.
Here are three lessons that the North London outfit can learn from their bitter defeat at the hands of Man City to help them turn things around against Chelsea on Saturday.
Guendouzi: A Star For The Future But Not An Immediate Solution
The new summer signing, Mattéo Guendouzi showed a lot of effort, dedication, and passion wearing the Arsenal shirt, but he also made some glaring errors, especially during the lead up to Raheem Sterling’s opener. The Arsenal teenager was also at fault for letting Sergio Aguero make a clear run at goal, but fortunately for him, Petr Cech bailed him out on that occasion by pulling off a remarkable save.
There is no doubt that Guendouzi has a lot of potential but Unai Emery’s faith in him for such a big game has not been justified. The French youngster needs time to settle into English football and throwing him in at the deep end on the first day of the season has not been fair. He needs to come off the bench more often in the coming weeks if the Gunners are to get the best out of him shortly.
Hence, a central midfield pairing of Lucas Torreira and Granit Xhaka might be Emery’s best option going forward.
Arsenal’s Big Players Need To Show Up Soon
None of Arsenal’s star players performed at their best against the Citizens last weekend. The likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Aaron Ramsey, Granit Xhaka, Mesut Ozil and Henrikh Mkhitaryan had a nightmare start and lacked sharpness during the contest. They were also guilty of failing to capitalise on any of the chances that City presented them in the second half.
Emery needs his best players to step up soon; otherwise, it is going to be another long and hard season for the Gunners without any silverware. The match versus Chelsea will be an ideal opportunity for the club’s stars to showcase their talents and build some confidence after what has been a tough start to their campaign.
Petr Cech Out… Bernd Leno In!
The performance of Cech against City has earned mixed reviews from critics. The experienced goalie made some excellent saves to keep his side in the game, but there were real concerns over his distribution as he came perilously close to making a howler versus the Premier League champions on Sunday. There were a few instances were Cech’s poor ball control invited the Citizens to press high up the pitch. Hence, Maurizio Sarri’s Chelsea might adopt the same policy this weekend which means that Cech needs to be replaced before he makes another costly error for his team.
Arsenal have managed to bring in Bernd Leno from Bayer 04 Leverkusen this summer and its high time that the German shot-stopper started a match in between the sticks for the Gunners. The 26-year-old already has six international caps for Germany and had been outstanding for Leverkusen last season, when he made 38 appearances, conceding 49 goals while keeping 12 clean sheets in all competitions.
Leno has enough in his locker to justify a start against Chelsea, so Emery should hand him a chance to make his first competitive Arsenal debut this weekend.
