Arsenal: 4 tactical mistakes Arteta made vs Crystal Palace

2. Nicolas Pepe & Wide Players So Far From Goal

Nicolas Pepe had a very poor game. And, somehow, he was involved in both of the goals Arsenal scored.

Just seven minutes in and Tomiyasu got close to him on the edge of the box, playing a neat one-two after the corner was overhit, and Arsenal scored from it. Pepe, close to the box, forcing a chance. Shock.

While he was hopeless in almost every duel (won 3 out of 15), couldn’t dribble (completed 1 out of 6) and lost possession painfully often (22), to give the Ivorian some relief, what is he supposed to do when he’s hugging the touchline 50 yards from goal? He’s being asked to draw blood from a stone.

It was noticeable even when Gabriel Martinelli came on just how disorganised the team was, with individual roles unheard of. Arteta asks too much of his players in situations and any winger, especially two in Pepe and Martinelli who aren’t ‘wingers’, left to take on three men with chalk on his boots will struggle.

At points in the first half Arteta had Pepe lining up on the right of a midfield three when defending in a 4-3-3 shape, in what can only be described as an effort to make him as nonthreatening as actually possible.

There can’t be a right-winger all on his own that far from goal on a side of the pitch where the right-back is instructed to fill in as a central defender for much of proceedings. It doesn’t work. Still, Pepe was poor and attacks disappeared every time they found him, but his hands are also somewhat tied, as the other wide players are when they’re on the touchline with zero support.

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