Arsenal legend Petit criticises Arteta tactics and says ‘he’s such a young manager… he has to learn’
EMMANUEL PETIT has criticised Mikel Arteta’s tactics after Arsenal gave ground to Manchester City in the title race.
The Gunners first slipped up at Anfield as they threw away a 2-0 lead to draw with Liverpool.
And they repeated the mistake on Saturday as West Ham fought back from two goals down to also claim a point.
Defending champions City are now just four points behind Arsenal with a game in hand.
The two sides face each other next week in a winner-takes-all battle.
And with City on an eight-game winning run in the league, not many are betting against Pep Guardiola winning a fifth title in six years.
Former Gunner Petit has now hit out at Arteta’s tactical selection against West Ham.
He believes the Spaniard should have made his substitutions a lot earlier before the game got away.
Indeed, Petit reckons Arteta has actually shown signs of mismanagement by not rotating his squad properly in the last month.
But he has urged fans to remain patient, even if Arsenal don’t win the title, as Arteta is still young and might need to learn his lessons the hard way.
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Petit told Legal Sportsbooks: “Recently yes [Arteta hasn’t rotated enough]. I think it was the same against Liverpool.
“He took some time to make subs and some players should have been involved earlier.
“The likes of Trossard, who has been brilliant since he joined. Arteta has his first XI in mind and wats to stay with them because he thinks they have been unbelievable since the beginning.
“He’s probably thinking ‘why should I change them?’ Because they were winning game after game?
“I can understand but in the meantime, as he’s such a young manager, maybe he has to learn as well from that.”