Pain in the Arsenal
Fansided

Arsenal Vs Brighton: 5 things we learned – It gets worse

By Andrew Dowdeswell

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 05: Mesut Ozil of Arsenal runs with the ball during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Brighton & Hove Albion at Emirates Stadium on December 05, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 05: Mesut Ozil of Arsenal runs with the ball during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Brighton & Hove Albion at Emirates Stadium on December 05, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
4 of 5
Next
LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 05: Head coach Freddie Ljungberg of Arsenal reacts during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Brighton & Hove Albion at Emirates Stadium on December 05, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – DECEMBER 05: Head coach Freddie Ljungberg of Arsenal reacts during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Brighton & Hove Albion at Emirates Stadium on December 05, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Marc Atkins/Getty Images) /

2. Freddie not to blame, but selections curious anyway

It would be foolish to blame to a manager who has still not been in the job a week and has had just three training sessions with his team, only two of which came prior to this match. As interim head coach Freddie Ljungberg has said time and again, there are only so many changes he can make to Unai Emery’s approach.

Nevertheless, his team selections in both matches have been curious, to say the least. Lucas Torreira is still an attacking midfielder, Mesut Ozil is now a winger, Kieran Tierney is now apparently worse than Sead Kolasinac, while Sokratis and David Luiz are back to being the best centre-halves. Nicolas Pepe, meanwhile, has vanished from existence, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is playing out wide.

Not all of these decisions are as problematic as the other — I actually don’t have a problem with Aubameyang playing out wide, for instance. But it is concerning that there are so many oddities with his team selections.