Arsenal have been fairly decent in recent matches especially in the Premier League. The Gunners are four points away from the fourth-placed Manchester United but have played three games less than the Red Devils.
But recently former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has raised a very important point about two Arsenal players who have had some issues with suspensions even in the past. Ferdinand slammed experienced midfielder Granit Xhaka and young Brazilian forward Gabriel Martinelli for their lack of discipline. Both the players have been involved in red card incidents in recent weeks and that raises a lot of questions on their capability to see out the bad challenges.
Martinelli saw red in the Gunners’ Premier League win at Wolves last weekend. Whereas Xhaka has had these issues since his Borussia Monchengladbach days.
Ferdinand criticised Xhaka and Martinelli on his latest episode of Vibe with Five, alongside co-presenter Joel Beya. When questioned by Beya on why these two players are getting sent off so often. He asks whether they are a bit rash or they lack discipline on which Ferdinand erupted, “Both. Lack of discipline. You’ve got to have sometimes a trigger in your mind that when you’re going in for a tackle ‘is this the right time or not?’ That separates the top players a lot of the time from the okay, good players. If you can’t rely on people, they’re worthless. Don’t have them.”
“In pressure situations, especially, throughout a season really, you need to be able to go on that pitch and think ‘I can rely on him, he’s one I can put in, I know what I’m getting, he’s cool’. These guys at the moment, that’s been Arsenal’s problem, that lack of discipline,” he added.
Ferdinand has earlier criticised Gabriel Martinelli for a red card incident. The young Brazilian pulled back Gabriel Jesus illegally and received a needless second yellow card. So this is not the first time both Xhaka and Martinelli are in question. They both are important players for Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal but they need to iron out those mistakes in their coming games.
Arsenal will next face Brentford in the Premier League in their current campaign. Revenge will be on their mind as they are looking to redeem themselves after losing 2-0 in the reverse fixture back in August.
