Paul Scholes has explained why Declan Rice has disappointed him at Arsenal and claims one of his teammates has “gone backwards” under Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal are currently six points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, who also have a game in hand, having won just eight of their 16 league games this season.
An injury to Martin Odegaard proved to be a significant setback for the Gunners, and while his return to the side has undoubtedly improved them, doubts remain over their ability to open opposition teams up in open play, with Arteta’s side heavily reliant on set pieces.
One of the stuttering forwards is Gabriel Martinelli, who’s managed just four goals and two assists in 22 appearances in all competitions this term, on the back of eight goals and five assists in the whole of last season. His struggles aren’t new.
Both Scholes and Jamie Carragher raised doubts over Martinelli on The Overlap, while Scholes also picked out Rice as a disappointment as the England international doesn’t score the goals he should, which is a problem for a team needing more than Bukayo Saka.
“Do you think it’s necessarily a striker or just another top attacking player?” Carragher said of Arsenal.
“I look at Martinelli and actually think probably three years ago when this team was just getting built, it felt like Odegaard, Saka and Martinelli were all at the same sort of level, looked like they could go on and be top players.
“I think the other two have, I’m not sure about Martinelli.”
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Scholes then replied: “Yeah, it feels like he’s gone backwards a little bit.
“You thought a year, 18 months ago, ‘wow, what a player’, and he has stalled a little bit.
“He’s still young, isn’t he? We said pre-season a centre-forward was always something that we felt Arsenal needed, and for some reason I don’t think the manager did.
“Then we all thought Odegaard coming back into the team would create more and I think he has made them a better team and I think eventually they will be okay. But January is so hard, who is out there?
“I think you need goals from everywhere, and I don’t see them coming from the midfield area for Arsenal.
“You think Declan Rice could be that man to go and get you 10, 15 goals but I’ve never actually seen it, and I don’t see where other than Saka scoring, Havertz drying up as well, I think Odegaard is still getting chances and eventually with the quality he’s got he is going to contribute but I think they all have to contribute.
“At some point you’ve got to try to affect the game. I think too many times these days the midfield try to stay there, try to control the game, help defensively, but when you’re a midfield player it’s every aspect of the game, someone different has got to try and win a game, they don’t seem to be thinking about that.
“It’s, ‘I’m playing my position, I’m alright’, not taking responsibility. To win a league everyone has to contribute and I don’t think they all are.”