Speaking in his column with Kicca, Glenn Hoddle criticised Arsenal after their 2-0 Premier League opener defeat to West Ham United.
The ex-England and Tottenham boss was harsh towards the Gunners on various levels. One point he made was regarding the club’s lack of depth and quality within the defence:
“People were saying Arsenal have tightened up at the back. But they’ve bought a goalkeeper, a good goalkeeper who had a bad game on Sunday. But have they bought two centre-halves? Have they bought full-backs? Have they bought a holding midfielder? No, they haven’t, and the same defensive frailties were evident against West Ham.”
To be fair, he has a point. Arsenal haven’t really tightened up at the back recently apart from the signing of Petr Cech and centre back Gabriel Paulista, who signed for thd club last January and so far has only really been a back-up to Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny.
However, there’s plenty of competition in the full back positions at the moment, with Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal battling it out for the left back position, whereas on the opposite flank, there’s strong competition between Mathieu Debuchy, Hector Bellerin and Calum Chambers.
It’s harsh to suggest Arsenal need to improve on these positions, especially at right back, as Hector Bellerin has only just broken into the first team and is performing well, at a very young and inexperienced age, as well as Debuchy, whose first season in north London was hampered by injuries. With young Englishman Calum Chambers also on the scene, there’s a lot of depth and choice for Wenger to choose from.
There’s not a lot of difference for the left back position, with two similar players in England international Kieran Gibbs and Spaniard Nacho Monreal, who are both decent players, but maybe this is a position Arsenal could do with strengthening up as a few mistakes have come from that area of the pitch, as well as at centre back.
Hoddle then goes on to explain the reasons for Arsenal’s loss last Sunday, and why he believes they shouldn’t be considered as title contenders this campaign:
“Arsenal’s defending for West Ham’s first goal was awful – pick-ups, the organisation of going back into the zone is the reason Kouyate got goalside. Yes, Petr Cech made a rash decision and got caught in no-man’s land, and the second goal was probably down to Petr Cech as well due to his positioning.
“But at the end of the day why is everyone saying Arsenal are now title contenders because of their defensive side of the game? They haven’t bought in any defenders, nothing’s changed from last year.”
Again, Glenn can’t be faulted for his opinion on the game, because Petr did have a bad game and he knows it as well as most Arsenal fans do, but that’s no reason to jump to the conclusion that the Gunners don’t have a chance at winning the league because of one loss, caused by two mistakes from the same player who happened to have a bad game, it happens to all players.
For just a small moment, Hoddle seems to agree with Arsenal, who are reportedly trying to bring in a striker and add to their force upfront, but is quick to come down on the Gunners again, mentioning that it’s the same story as last season as to why Arsenal aren’t competition to chelsea:
“They’re talking about bringing in a striker, which I actually agree with. But at the end of the day I don’t see why they are all saying they’re going to contend with Chelsea for the Premier League. They had the same frailties on Sunday that they had last season.”
Lastly, he summarises his harsh opinion of Arsenal at this moment in time, by saying that as a team, they need to pull together and sort themselves out if they want to have any chance at the League. The former England boss also explains that with the same outfit of players as last season, bar Petr Cech, Arsenal are not the defensive unit everyone believes they are.
“They’ve got to put it right, collectively as a team, if they do that then they’ve got a chance. But I’m scratching my head why everyone thinks they’ve become a good defensive unit when they’ve basically got the same personnel. The lad Gabriel might come in, but he’s been there for six months and you’d think if he was that good then him and Koscielny would have been in from the start of the season so there are still big question marks about Arsenal’s defence.”
