The way that Arsenal prepared for their Sunday Premier League title matchup at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City is a topic of much discussion.
Arsenal had the opportunity to take the lead in the Premier League standings. Show the world that they are deserving of a championship and defeat THE team in the league to make a bold statement.
Mikel Arteta chose to play instead in order to keep his team from losing and to ultimately earn a point.
As a result, neither team had many opportunities during the match, and even the slimmest of margins was closely watched.
Ian Wright specifically criticized Kai Havertz for his lack of movement as an Arsenal number nine during the match.
The legendary striker told Premier League Productions on March 31, 24, at 6:40 p.m., that the 24-year-old was “walking” at one point and wasn’t moving his body aggressively enough.
Starting in his typical center-forward position, the German, who has been in excellent form since the start of the year and was even being called “complete,”
Although Arteta chose to play Gabriel Jesus out wide, the Brazil international is the ideal candidate for that position and hasn’t quite found his footing since returning from injury.
With Arsenal having only 27% of the ball, Wright explained why he thought Havertz wasn’t doing enough without the ball to try and help his team score.
Manchester City vs. Kai Havertz
Wright remarked, “I see a lot of this with strikers, at the moment. It’s not even frustration with some of the runs.”
“Here, you look at Havertz. We still have the ball, so you can still get onside and then go for a run, even though he is walking. Looking at that, he ought to have moved back into position to make a run earlier.
With his quality and in a match like this, Odegaard needs to make a pass around the left side, onto his left foot, and take the defender off the ball so he can get a touch. I believe it’s just those kinds of moments. That is the margins and that is the difference.
Time will tell.
Some will be critical of Arsenal’s strategy and believe they lost out on this chance to win the championship.
With midweek games coming up, they are currently two points behind Liverpool in second place in the table after Liverpool defeated Brighton 2-1 on Sunday.
Fans will find out in the next few weeks whether Arsenal’s tactical maneuver has paid off or will come back to haunt them.
But one thing is certain—they remain very much in the running, with another important round of fixtures to come. You can’t write them out of the race just yet.
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