Arsenal: Hector Bellerin Needs To Follow Alex Iwobi Directive

Arsenal’s humiliating dismantling at the hands of Crystal Palace was not helped by another pathetic display from Hector Bellerin. It’s time to act.

Arsenal came into Selhurst Park having won their first game in ages. West Ham helped the Gunners look like actual top four contenders and may have served their part in creating a false hope that was effectively eviscerated by the half time against Crystal Palace.

The team as a whole was just awful. They had no cohesion, no consistency, nothing. And naturally, the players who we have been seeing massive decreases in their effectiveness were horrible again. Mesut Ozil was awful and perhaps even more unfortunately, so was Hector Bellerin.

This marks another tally in the ever-expanding list of poor performances by Bellerin.

The once-untouchable right back has suddenly become damn close to a liability, as he can’t seem to string together any sort of consistent performances. Seems to be a common theme. He is flaky in defense and ineffective going forward. Good thing he still has his speed to make up for things.

Take Crystal Palace for instance. Bellerin lost possession four times. More than anyone else on the team. That’s just poor. Then there was his suspect passing, one of which nearly gifted Palace a goal.

I never thought I’d be categorizing Bellerin as something that needs to chance, but that is precisely where we are right now.

What needs to happen is exactly what happened to Alex Iwobi, just not as severe. Not yet at least.

Mathieu Debuchy, Gabriel Paulista (when Laurent Koscielny comes back) and Carl Jenkinson have to be given a fighting chance to take the spot from Bellerin. The young Spaniard may be talented and he could damn well turn into one of the best in the world, but he is hurting the team, and himself, by not facing any sort of challenges to his monopoly.

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If the fear is that if he’s benched, he will take Barcelona up on their offer, than the cause is lost anyway.

Debuchy has quality, that’s why he is still here. He could absolutely challenge Bellerin and possibly awaken the form that cares about his job, and isn’t already convinced that he is never going to lose his spot at the age of 22.

The first step is moving him to the bench. From there, he can try to fight his way back into the club, like Iwobi had the chance to do. But if he can’t, there is no harm in sending him to the U23s to get his form back.

Confidence plays such a huge role with these young guys especially and the last thing we need is more complacency from two guys that are going to form a strong foundation for the future of the club.

Next: Arsenal's Potential Starting XI Under Leonardo Jardim

The demotion of Iwobi was a fantastic move for progress, but it is merely the first step.

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