'Let's be honest' - Liverpool legend slams Arsenal star over 'not good' performances

One Arsenal star has been criticised over his lack of output for the club so far. The Gunners are currently in a spot of bother as they look to go one better in their bid to win the Premier League title, narrowly missing out in their last two attempts.

Mikel Arteta’s men are already nine points behind leaders Liverpool, and they are going to have to be a consistent winning machine from here on out if they want to end their more than two decade wait for another title.

Their attacking players will be key to that, with Arteta needing more from starting winger Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka, who have both struggled to perform at their dangerous best over recent weeks. But part of that is having serious competition behind them, and indeed the threat that either could be displaced if they are not at their best.

Arteta has lost that over recent weeks, in part because Leandro Trossard has had to play centrally to cover for Martin Odegaard, who is now back, and elsewhere, loan star Raheem Sterling has struggled with production. In eight appearances across all competitions, Sterling has scored once and assisted one, and none of those goal contributions have come in his league outings.

Arsenal need more from the England winger, and that’s something Liverpool legend Steve Nicol has echoed, saying on ESPN: “Let’s be honest, what has he done? He’s done zero. I mean, at the very least, come on and give Martinelli and Saka on the other side a break and push the rest of the players to be better.

“I mean, just all the things, all the reasons that he was brought. You know, use your experience, push the other two to be better, giving them competition, and then when you do get a chance, make it count. I mean, he’s done nothing, absolutely zero. (I expected) more than zero, I expected more than nothing at all, absolutely. Okay call me crazy, but if you sign somebody and they do nothing, that’s not good.”

Arteta on Sterling

Arteta hasn’t said much about Sterling over recent weeks, but he had no doubts about signing the Chelsea winger. He said back in early September: “He looks great. He's got a lot of energy, a smile on his face and he's at it. He wants to prove a point and when someone's got that in his belly you sense it straight away.

"Obviously I don't need to know anything else about his quality and what he can bring to the team. In his personal life a lot of things have changed but with the player I was really surprised. The first call I had with him I knew in the first ten seconds we have to bring him because he really wanted it.

"That was my only question mark: 'what stage is he at in his career?' [But] after 10 seconds, I knew already before the next questions that we needed him here. What I see is hunger. He's a player that wants to play every minute of every game. When that's not the case, he's not happy. He wants to play every single day and I see that. His commitment and the level of energy that he's bringing to the team is a big boost. You can feel it walking through the door. We are better with him. He's going to make us better."