Match of the Day pundit thinks Mikel Arteta made key tactical mistake during Crystal Palace vs Arsenal

Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy believes Mikel Arteta made a tactical mistake against Crystal Palace on Monday night.

The Gunners defeated Palace at Selhurst Park thanks to a Martin Odegaard penalty, but it was no easy task, with Arsenal yet to reach their full potential, managing two narrow wins so far. Though, they haven’t been helped by injuries, with Jurrien Timber suffering a serious injury blow during his first league game for the club.

Oleksandr Zinchenko has also been out so far, but he is set to return to full fitness in the very near future after coming off the bench on Monday, which is well-timed given Takehiro Tomiyasu’s red card on Monday night, further reducing depth at the full-back positions in the short term.

Against Palace, Thomas Partey covered for Timber, playing at right-back, despite his usual position being in the holding midfield role. Though, the Ghanaian was asked to play a more narrow full-back role, and speaking on TalkSPORT, Match of the Day pundit Murphy believes that was a tactical mistake from Arteta.

“See I’m not sure on the benefit of having [Thomas] Partey in there to be honest,” Murphy said.

“I don’t really understand why they’re doing it in this particular game because they should be dominating possession and on top of them so you want width,” Murphy responded.

“You need to stretch Roy’s teams, Palace’s teams, they generally have numbers in the middle. You need to get out wide, create some two-on-ones. Ben White isn’t going to get out here as much coming from a centre-back position.”

Partey will likely have to cover at full-back again against Fulham this weekend, although Arteta could move to bring in Jakub Kiwior on the right should Zinchenko be ready to start on the left.