Paul Merson has slammed Mikel Arteta’s decision not to play Jorginho during Arsenal’s costly Premie League draw with Southampton on Friday.
The Gunners dropped yet more points after falling behind to two early goals from Carlos Alcaraz and Theo Walcott.
While Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka scored within the last few minutes to rescue a point for the league leaders, a 3-3 draw with the division’s bottom side proved hugely frustrating.
It puts even more pressure on Wednesday’s trip to Manchester City, with Arteta’s side now surely needing to beat the champions in their own backyard.
Injuries have started to cost Arsenal of late.
William Saliba’s absence has seen them concede seven goals in their last three games and the Frenchman is not expected to feature at City.
Granit Xhaka, meanwhile, missed the draw at the Emirates Stadium due to illness.
Summer signing Fabio Vieira was called upon to start in midfield alongside Thomas Partey and the 22-year-old duly struggled as the home side failed to grasp control of proceedings.
Writing in his SportsKeeda column, Sky Sports pundit Merson slammed that decision and stressed the much more experienced Jorginho should have played.
“Arsenal played Fabio Vieira instead of Jorginho last week, and I thought that was unbelievable,” wrote Merson.
“They’ve brought Jorginho in to be a calm head in big matches. I didn’t think the game against Southampton was a foregone conclusion, and to keep Jorginho on the bench was a big mistake.
