Arsenal huddle
Arsenal huddle
**Arteta admits midfield pairing ‘didn’t work so well’ after Amex defeat**
New midfield partnerships are judged twice. First when they win and look like the future, then when the press arrives and the same two players cannot find each other.
Summer signings rarely get a free pass after a first difficult league start. Supporters remember the fee, the goal from the previous weekend, and the academy player who was left out so the experiment could continue.
Managers tend to talk about time. Pundits talk about the hour mark. Both are usually looking at the same problem from different seats.
READ MORE: PLAYER RATINGS: Brighton 3-0 Arsenal
Paul Merson has criticised Bruno Guimaraes after Arsenal’s 3-0 defeat at Brighton, saying the summer signing was “a million miles off it”. Mikel Arteta, asked about the midfield he picked, admitted the pairing with Declan Rice did not work as it had at Sunderland.
Guimaraes joined from Newcastle for £75million. He started his first Premier League game at the Stadium of Light last week, scored from range and kept his place on the south coast. Myles Lewis-Skelly dropped out so Arteta could keep Rice and the Brazilian together.
Brighton overran that midfield. Guimaraes was replaced by Mikel Merino around the hour.
“A million miles off it. A million miles off it. I said at half time he would come off, but he’s stayed on for another 10 minutes or so,” Merson said on Sky Sports.
“It was really quick for him, they closed him down.
“I don’t care how good you are. If people get your head down and close you down and make you work it’s a leveller and that’s what Brighton have done.
“They have been absolutely brilliant.”
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Arteta pointed back to the Sunderland win and said the conditions behind the midfield were different at the Amex.
“It worked extremely well when we played Sunderland away and we managed to win the game,” he said.
“And today it didn’t work so well for a lot of things that happened as well behind them to make sure that they could play a completely different game.
“That’s something that for sure it will evolve.
“It’s in its early stages, they only play together a few minutes and that relationship will for sure improve and give us a lot of joy.”
That is the official line after a first league defeat of the season. The Rice–Guimaraes pair is still new. Brighton made it look older than it is by shutting the Brazilian down and forcing mistakes.
Lewis-Skelly’s omission will now be part of the debate through the international break. Arteta has three weeks before Leeds at home on 10 October to decide whether the new midfield gets another start, or whether Saturday was evidence that the balance is not there yet.
Mikel Arteta - Arsenal
Brighton 1-1 Arsenal - VAR
Brighton 1-1 Arsenal - VAR