Arsenal have been told they’ve got a Declan Rice problem and not the kind Mikel Arteta will want to hear.
Fresh from their Carabao Cup final flop against Manchester City, the Gunners are facing a fresh wave of scrutiny over their playing style and recruitment direction. The 2-0 Wembley defeat laid bare the attacking limitations that have plagued Arteta’s side at crucial moments, and the post mortem has been brutal.
Former England and Tottenham midfielder Chris Waddle has now questioned whether Arsenal even need to be in the mix for Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali not because the Italian isn’t good enough, but because they’ve already got Rice doing the exact same job.
“They’ve got Declan Rice and they’ve got Martin Zubimendi, who’s a very good player. But Arsenal seem to collect players,” Waddle told FootballTransfers.
“Tonali has had a couple of great seasons, he’s got better this season. He’s a good age and I’m not surprised there’s a lot of clubs interested in him.
“He’s a very economical player, he’s a little bit like Declan Rice, let’s be honest, he’s very consistent with his pass ratio, he’s got a good shot and he’s got a good engine.
“In my mind, he’s a very similar player to Declan Rice, though. Do Arsenal really need another player like that?”
It’s a fair question.
Arsenal were strongly linked with Tonali back in January when Mikel Merino went down injured, but Newcastle made it clear their £100m rated midfielder wasn’t going anywhere. The interest hasn’t gone away, though both Arsenal and Manchester United are said to be keeping tabs ahead of the summer.
But Waddle’s point lands with some force. For all Rice’s quality and there’s no doubting that do the Gunners really need another version of the same thing when what they’re crying out for is a bit of unpredictability in the final third?
That’s where Paul Scholes comes in.
The former Manchester United midfielder has laid into Arsenal’s style of play, claiming it’s actually making Bukayo Saka look a shadow of the player who tore up the Premier League last season.
Saka’s numbers have fallen off a cliff. Just nine goal contributions across all competitions tells its own story, and the England winger was anonymous at Wembley, barely getting a sniff in dangerous areas.
Scholes reckons that’s not on Saka. It’s on the system.
“Their better players just weren’t performing,” Scholes said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast. “You talk about these forward players not performing but you have to look at your midfield players and your centre halves, they couldn’t get the ball to them.
“Did you see the bit where Bernardo Silva sprinted out to try to stop it going for a corner? Even when you’re playing against it, you don’t want to give it away.
“It’s almost like playing against Stoke what we did years ago, sometimes because the throw ins were that good the manager told us to kick it out for a corner because of [Rory] Delap, because the delivery is not as good.”
It’s a damning comparison and one Arteta won’t enjoy hearing.
The Gunners still hold a nine point lead over City in the Premier League and have a favourable Champions League quarter final against Sporting CP to look forward to. But if the attacking issues that surfaced at Wembley aren’t addressed, there’s a growing sense that this season could yet unravel.
First up after the international break is an FA Cup quarter final at Southampton. Arteta needs a response.
And maybe, just maybe, a rethink about what his midfield actually needs.
