Journalist James McNicholas has outlined his confusion after the recent performance of Ben White for Arsenal seemed to leave some football fans divided.
In their first game of the new Premier League season, a strike from Gabriel Martinelli and an own goal from Marc Guehi saw the Gunners claim a 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.
With senior right-back Takehiro Tomiyasu missing with injury, White was asked to come in a play in that role, meaning he had the unenviable task of fronting up to Wilfried Zaha – which was tipped to be a tough battle.
With Arsenal getting the win, and a clean sheet, White presumably had a good game, but according to McNicholas seems as thought some thought he was great and other felt the opposition was the case.
Indeed, he took to Twitter to write: “Genuinely unusual to such divided interpretations of a player’s performance. I’ve seen many people say he was great, and many say he was a liability.”
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McNicholas was writing his response to tactical football writer Lewis Ambrose who also noted the criticism of White’s performance. He said he was ‘surprised to see him getting some criticism during the game’ before adding that the defender delivered a ‘really important’ display.
This mixed display is backed up by the player ratings in The Express who point out ‘some groggy moments’ and his yellow card for a foul on Zaha but do still give him a 7/10 mark for display.