Gallas highlights what Arsenal are ‘still missing’ as club will ‘have difficulties’ vs ‘the biggest teams’
William Gallas has predicted that Arsenal will “have difficulties” when they come up against “the biggest teams” away from home.
Doubters have been quick to come out of the woodwork after Arsenal suffered their first defeat of the 2022/23 campaign.
The Gunners had a positive summer in the transfer market as Gabriel Jesus, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Fabio Vieira were brought in. William Saliba also returned to the club following his stellar loan spell at Marseille.
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These three players have played a significant role as Arsenal won their first four games of the new season.
Mikel Arteta’s side travelled to face Man Utd on Sunday in what was comfortably their toughest test to date.
Arsenal put in a really strong performance for large portions but they fell to a 3-1 defeat in the end.
Man Utd opened the scoring against the run of play before they added two goals on the counter-attack in the second half to take the game away from Arsenal.
The Gunners will look to bounce back from this defeat when they face FC Zurich in the Europa League on Thursday night. They then host Everton in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon.
Gallas had a spell as captain of Arsenal and he also featured for Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur.
The Frenchman is concerned about Arsenal as he feels that they are missing an “experienced defender at the back”:
“I’m a little bit disappointed for them because they went to Old Trafford with a great spirit – top of the league and confident – and played really well to begin with,” Gallas told Genting Casino.
“But the story is the same; they conceded three goals and lost three one.
“It looks like that against the biggest teams, away from home, Arsenal are still going to have difficulties. It’s quite simple really.
“When you go to play against any of the big teams in the Premier League, you need players with personality and character to get anything from those games.
“I naturally look at the defenders. Yesterday, the performance showed me that Arsenal are still missing an experienced defender at the back.
“When Arsenal were suffering for a few moments, you need your players to show leadership – talk to each other – you need players that can take on the responsibility and dig in for a period. Arsenal didn’t do that.”