Fewer touches than Raya: Arteta must now axe Arsenal's 6/10 "wild horse"

The good news is that Premier League games will be much less stressful for Arsenal fans this season; the bad news is their team are now all but out of the title race.

Mikel Arteta’s side travelled to the City Ground last night determined to bounce back from their defeat at the hands of West Ham United over the weekend, and while they certainly weren’t as bad as they were against the Hammers, they weren’t good enough to beat Nottingham Forest either.

To their credit, the North Londoners were probably just about the better side on the night, registering more big chances, more possession and a higher expected goals figure, but it still wasn’t enough.

Moreover, even though the team were better than they were on Saturday, that doesn’t mean they were good, as there were some very disappointing performances from a handful of starters, including one player who must be dropped for the next game.

Arsenal’s biggest underperformers

Unfortunately, last night was yet another game in which Martin Odegaard flattered to deceive in practically every aspect.

The club captain failed to create any chances of note, was unable to put away the chances created for him – even if the one from Oleksandr Zinchenko would’ve been offside – and, as he has for most of the campaign to date, looked anonymous.

It might sound harsh, but it’s an opinion shared by football.london’s Tom Canton who gave the Norwegian a 5/10 match rating at full-time and wrote that he’s ‘still lacking that cutting edge,’ which, if anything, is quite a kind way to describe his display.

Canton also gave 5/10 ratings to Leandro Trossard and Mikel Merino, accusing the former of ‘a lot of show and sadly little go’ while arguing that beyond a header straight at Matz Sels in the second half, the latter had ‘little impact on the game.’

Now, it might be a little harsh to criticise the Spaniard too much considering this was his third appearance up top, but the comments on the Belgian are more than fair.

In 94 minutes of action he amassed a combined expected goal and assists figure of 0.11, failed to have a shot on or off target, failed in 2/3 dribbles, misplaced 100% of his crosses, lost seven of 12 duels, lost the ball 16 times, committed four fouls and was dribbled past once.

However, as poor as the former Brighton & Hove Albion star was, he wasn’t the only starter on the left-hand side who let the manager down.

The Arsenal star Arteta must drop

Unfortunately for Arsenal fans, the list of notably poor performers from last night does not end with the aforementioned starters, as Riccardo Calafiori was arguably just as bad as anyone else on the pitch.

The Italian international started at left-back against West Ham at the weekend but was taken off about ten minutes into the second half as the visitors’ opening goal came from his poor 1v1 defending.

However, because Myles Lewis-Skelly picked up a red card, he was back in from the start last night.

Alas, he ended up spending even less time on the pitch against Forest, as following a pretty dismal first half in which he looked like a deer in headlights at times and picked up a yellow just three minutes in, he was substituted for Kieran Tierney at the interval.

Now, the Gunners’ “wild-horse,” as dubbed by journalist Sam Dean, was decent enough going forward and almost scored a brilliant goal when he spun in the Tricky Trees’ penalty area and hit the post, but whenever the hosts came down his side, it was panic stations.

Again, this may seem harsh, but it’s an opinion shared by Canton, who gave the Italian a 6/10 match rating, although based on his statistics from the game, that might be too high.

In his 45 minutes of action, the 22-year-old amassed a combined expected goal and assists figure of 0.13, failed to make a block, interception or tackle, was dribbled past once, lost 75% of his duels, committed a foul, didn’t attempt a single cross or long ball, completed just 17 passes and took 25 touches – nine fewer than David Raya .

In all, it was another night to forget for the Rome-born star, and if he doesn’t put in a few defensively solid displays sooner rather than later, he’s going to get a reputation as being a liability at the back.

With that said, given the importance of next week’s game against PSV Eindhoven, we reckon Arteta has to drop Calafiori in favour of Lewis-Skelly.

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