‘I’ve NEVER seen this before’: Ian Wright questions two Arsenal stars for their defending in the build-up to Brighton goals… with the Gunners’ 3-0 defeat at the Emirates a massive blow in their Premier League title hopes
Ian Wright has criticised two Arsenal players for their questionable defending in a 3-0 defeat against Brighton.
The Gunners were soundly beaten by Roberto De Zerbi’s Europe-chasing Seagulls at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon.
The result effectively ends their Premier League title hopes, with a goal from Julio Enciso and two late strikes from Deniz Undav and Pervis Estupinan seeing Arsenal go four points behind leaders Manchester City, having played a game more.
Their defending for all three goals left a lot to be desired, and club icon Wright told Premier League Productions that two men in particular were at fault.
Former England striker Wright singled out centre half Jakub Kiwior, who bizarrely bent down suddenly, allowing Enciso to head home – with Kiwior feeling he was fouled.
Ian Wright has criticised two Arsenal stars for their defending in a 3-0 loss against Brighton
The Gunners’ conclusive defeat effectively ends their challenge for the Premier League title
Roberto De Zerbi’s Seagulls scored via Julio Enciso, Deniz Undav (right) and Pervis Estupinan
He said: ‘I was thinking, ‘Oh my gosh there’s something drastically wrong with him because he’s stopped, he’s gone down, so obviously he will not be able to play on’. I’ve never seen this before, with all due respect to him.
‘Because if you’re bad you go off, but if you know you’re going to be able to play on…Yes he’s stepped on his foot there, his boot’s come off, I get that, but now you go, you mark and deal with it.
‘Let’s face it, he’s able to play on, so that foul cannot be bad enough for him to go on his knees and the guy have a free header. That was a goal that should not have happened. To see him go down like that was really, really surprising, I thought he had a really bad injury.’
Polish 23-year-old Kiwior sprinted after the ball shortly afterwards, proving he was not badly injured.
Wright then had his say on Leandro Trossard, who – against his former side – gave the ball away before Undav’s chip, which made it 2-0 in the 86th minute and killed the match as a contest.
‘That is a difficult thing he’s trying, to play the ball round the corner into his teammate with the outside of his left foot,’ he added. ‘Trossard has to read the situation, he’s got enough space to turn to his right and play it to Kieran Tierney.
‘That was somebody who’s come off the bench and I don’t know if he’s up to speed with the game or whether he cares enough at that particular moment, because the way he flicked his left foot out at that was not right at that stage of the game.
‘You can’t give the ball away, you can’t lose the ball. Especially in the manner he did it there, it’s almost flippant. You’re not getting away with that.’
And club icon Wright (right) called into question the decision-making of two Gunners players
Jakub Kiwior (right) ducked to allow Julio Enciso (centre) to head home, while Leandro Trossard, playing against his former side, gave the ball away to allow striker Undav to score
