Football writer Charles Watts has slammed Arsenal defender Cedric for his display in the club’s recent loss.
Over the past few weeks, the Gunners’ pursuit of a top-four place has faced some major setbacks. Indeed, their last three Premier League outings have resulted in three defeats.
First, they fell 3-0 away at Crystal Palace, before then losing at home 2-1 to Brighton & Hove Albion. This weekend, they couldn’t claim anything from a trip to the coast as Southampton won thanks to a single foal from Jan Bednarek.
Speaking after the match, Watts could not hide his frustration with Cedric, as he gave the right-back a 3/10 rating for his ‘awful’ display and he lost possession 16 times.
Is Cedric good enough for Arsenal?
Yes
No
Talking on his YouTube channel, he said: “Cedric had a nightmare. Set pieces-wise, there was two in the first half, two really good positions that Arsenal got into, right on the edge of the box and he wasted them both, sent them straight out of play for a goal kick on both occasions. Awful. Cedric gets a three.”
TIF Thoughts on Cedric and Arsenal…
With first-choice option Takehiro Tomiyasu out injured, Cedric has become Mikel Arteta’s go-to in the last 10 league games. However, he substituted the Portuguese player off just 60 minutes into this game.
Arteta certainly didn’t seem happy with what he saw, and it looks as though Watts wasn’t the only one upset with the defender’s set-piece ability either, with the Evening Standard’s Simon Collings labelling the Portuguese defender’s display as ‘pretty awful’.
All in all, it sounds as if Arsenal’s way out of this slump may well involve taking the defender off set-piece duty.
In other news: ‘Staggering’, ‘Shouldn’t be in the team’ – Watts stunned by what he’s seen regarding Arsenal ace