Arteta told to drop Arsenal star for Man City who ‘fluffed’ it as Carragher makes Gunners U-turn | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta has been advised to drop an Arsenal star who “fluffed his lines” against Sporting as Jamie Carragher made a U-turn on a Gunners prediction.

Arsenal saw out a goalless draw at the Emirates to confirm their place in the Champions League semi-finals, where they will meet Atletico Madrid, after Kai Havertz’s late goal in the first leg secured a 1-0 aggregate win.

It was the latest unconvincing performance from Arteta’s side in a long list of them on the back of Carabao Cup final defeat to Manchester City, the FA Cup exit at the hands of Southampton and the Premier League loss to Bournemouth on Saturday.

Thierry Henry has laughed at their chances in the crunch clash with Manchester City on Sunday and Joe Cole has urged Arteta to drop one player for what many believe will be the title decider.

“I think Mikel Arteta goes with Kai Havertz because you’re going to need to hold the ball up against Man City,” Cole said on TNT Sports.

“Viktor Gyokeres fluffed his lines tonight in terms of holding the ball up and that’s why he got dragged off. Havertz did that better and they looked a more composed team.”

Wonderkid Max Dowman was introduced at a similar time to Havertz, around the hour mark, and Cole believes he too could have a big part to play vs Manchester City, particularly given Noni Madueke looked to pick up an injury on Wednesday.

“It would be a massive call [to start Dowman against Man City] but he is special, he’s clearly special,” Cole added.

“What he’s already done at the game at his age is incredible. He could start…

“Arsenal were in a Champions League quarter-final tonight and Arteta turned to Dowman and that shows you the faith they have in him.

‘We might even see him on Sunday and that would be huge.”

Before the start of the Champions League last-16 matches last month, Jamie Carragher predicted that Arsenal would beat PSG in the final in Budapest on May 30.

But he’s now backtracked on that prediction, claiming Arsenal don’t have the “star” quality in attack to go all the way.

“I’m not sure they’ve got the quality in the attack,” Carragher told CBS Sports.

“The game we just watched tonight [Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid], you think of the players on both teams, Arsenal don’t have that.

“It’s not a criticism, they just don’t have those players in attack, they haven’t.

“So, that’s why I think when you get to the business end of the season, certainly in the Champions League… even though I tipped Arsenal to win it, I just don’t believe it.

“I can’t see a team winning the Champions League who don’t have a star in the front four, and they haven’t got one.”