Mikel Arteta and Craig Burley (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images, ESPN FC/YouTube)
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been criticised for some strange substitutions during the frustrating 0-0 draw with Everton at the weekend.
The Spanish tactician will no doubt have been disappointed to miss out on all three points in the kind of game the Gunners should really be winning, but he perhaps didn’t help himself by taking off his captain Martin Odegaard.
ESPN FC pundit Craig Burley thought it was “strange” of Arteta to take Odegaard off when the Norway international was linking up so well with Bukayo Saka to provide the only real spark in the game.
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Speaking in the video below, Burley commented that Arsenal looked quite lop-sided due to the threat of Odegaard and Saka not being matched by Martinelli on the other side…
It perhaps makes sense that Burley was unimpressed with Arteta making a change by removing Odegaard when it was already proving a bit of a challenge to break Everton down anyway.
The 25-year-old is a world class creative player and a hugely important part of this Arsenal team, so the north London giants would undoubtedly do well to use him as much as possible as they don’t currently have any kind of alternative.
Martin Odegaard is replaced by Ethan Nwaneri during Arsenal's 0-0 draw with Everton
Martin Odegaard is replaced by Ethan Nwaneri during Arsenal’s 0-0 draw with Everton (Photo by Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
It is perhaps a concern, though, how reliant Arsenal are on Odegaard and Saka to provide all the magic in attack, with others like Martinelli really not performing well enough for some time now.
Can Arsenal still win the Premier League title this season?
Position Team Won Drawn Lost Points
1st Liverpool 11 3 1 36
2nd Chelsea 10 4 2 34
3rd Arsenal 8 6 2 30
4th Forest 8 4 4 28
5th Man City 8 3 5 27
Arsenal are clearly not out of the title race just yet, but they’ve made things very hard for themselves with too many draws already at this stage of the season.
One imagines there’ll be plenty inside the Emirates Stadium absolutely kicking themselves that this slump has come at just the time when Manchester City have finally dipped, only for Liverpool and Chelsea to come back so strongly.
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Arsenal had a much stronger second half of the season last term than they did in the first, so perhaps there’ll still be a few twists and turns yet in this title race.