Arsenal: Hector Bellerin going one way in particular, and it isn’t backwards

Arsenal’s up and down year has had many players falling in and out of form, but Hector Bellerin is not one. Save the criticism for someone else.

Arsenal’s loss to Watford sucked for so many reasons, but a new reason has been added to that list. With the score 1-0 in favor of the Gunners, Richarlison burst into the box with Hector Bellerin going toe to toe with the Brazilian.

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Then Richarlison went over and the rest is history. A wrongly-awarded penalty was given and the Gunners would go on to lose.

The new reason that the Watford match sucked is because someone – Ray Wilkins, to be exact – has come out and criticized Hector Bellerin for his performance. As if the Spaniard was at fault for an opponents flop.

Wilkins logic was that Bellerin was beaten by Richarlison. But that simply isn’t the case. They were side by side and if Bellerin was beaten, then Richarlison would have had no reason to go down without contact.

This penalty was no fault of Bellerin’s and it’s absurd to say otherwise. Some say he shouldn’t have made the challenge in the first place, but you show me the supposed ‘challenge’ that he shouldn’t have made. It was two guys running side by side.

Wilkins went on to say that the speedy Spanish fullback has ‘gone backwards’ – an assessment that absolutely irritates the hell out of me.

All season, with so much dialogue occurring about who is the best to line up in the midfield, and who is the best to have in the three-pronged attack and who might be the best to wrangle the back three, there has been all of zero conversation about who should play wingback.

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Why?

Because Hector Bellerin and Sead Kolasinac are doing a smashing job that requires no extra conversation. Kolasinac has been a monster (in a good way) back there and Bellerin has shown me that not only has he not gone backwards in his progression, but he has improved.

That’s right, Ray Wilkins – improved. Do yourself a favor and check out the crosses of Bellerin circa 2015/16. It was laughable. Balls were nowhere near their intended target.

This year, each and every game he reminds us that he is a good crosser these days. Is that a fluke? Absolutely not. It’s called improving, and Bellerin is doing it.

Bellerin was leery of the wingback position, but has since proven that not only is he learning to be okay with it – he is thriving in it. He is embracing the attacking opportunities and relishing in the defensive duties.

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This is exactly what Bellerin is all about – improving. He has shown us so many times how well he improves his game. To say that he has instead “gone backwards” is to complete disregard the steps he has taken to get better.