Arsenal Defender Can Only Be Trusted In A Back Three: Jermain Jenas

Football pundit and former Tottenham Hotspur player, Jermain Jenas believes Unai Emery is not doing enough to improve Arsenal’s defence.

“Ask any Arsenal fan what they have needed over recent years, and it is to find a Patrick Vieira or Gilberto type of player,” Jenas wrote on his column for Express Sport.

“A player who is not always thinking “forward” on the ball, doing nice things. A player who is thinking, as play develops: ‘Where are the problems here? Where will it break down?’

“For all the money spent in the summer on the likes of Pepe or Ceballos coming in, they have still been defensively poor especially away from home.

“They still haven’t really solved that area. You may say: ‘what about Lucas Torreira?’ When I watch him he goes forward a lot more than I thought he would. I thought he was more of a sitter. He scores goals and gets forward so he is not that guy.

“Secondly, they have two very very experienced centre halves in their team. Sokratis has player Champions League for Dortmund for a long time. David Luiz is David Luiz. He has won titles and has been at big clubs.

“They are two players who should have the ability to dictate everything that goes on in front of them. I don’t see any communication from any of them because Arsenal seem so stretched as a team. Unai Emery seems to roll the dice and see if it comes off.

“The quicker he gets back to a back three the better. There is no way Luiz should be in a back four. Bringing him in, and losing Laurent Koscielny, is not an upgrade. He was a leader and a captain, although at the end of his career, he dictated things.