Arsenal were overwhelmed by the juggernaut that is Manchester City on Wednesday. The Gunners have been unable to recover from the losses of William Saliba and Takehiro Tomiyasu and Rob Holding’s deputising role has been exploited in the side’s poor run.
That said, the group beyond Holding has been disappointing and it would be unfair to lay blame at the feet of the experienced centre-half. Mikel Arteta has hardly rotated his side throughout the four-game winless run, making it very easy to predict who might start.
The absences of Oleksandr Zinchenko and Granit Xhaka have forced some variation in the group but their returns saw the immediate switch to the norm. Similar to when Gabriel Jesus returned to full fitness, the impressive Leandro Trossard was then dropped and the Gunners haven’t won a game since the Belgian returned to the bench.
