Former Liverpool defender and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher believes that Nuno Tavares may have "cost" Arsenal a top four finish last season. The left-back joined the club last summer from Benfica for roughly £7million, bringing plenty of promise to his new team.
While he was often an understudy to Kieran Tierney, the 22-year-old did get his opportunity when the Scotsman was eventually sidelined with a number of injuries. The Portuguese youth international managed 28 first-team appearances during the course of the campaign, showing plenty going forward, but struggling when defending.
This led to several occasions where Tavares was substituted at half-time, with one of Granit Xhaka, Takehiro Tomiyasu or Cedric Soares being forced to fill in on the flank. It was a shuffle that caused all sorts of problems for Mikel Arteta, whose lack of squad depth became a problem and the balance in the team was impacted.
