Gary Neville has reportedly stated that Mikel Arteta cannot use the absence of key players as an excuse after Arsenal surrendered ground in the title race.
Both of Bournemouth goals came after William Saliba was sent off, as the Gunners lost 2-0 at the Vitality stadium on Saturday night without the help of club captain Martin Odegaard and talisman Bukayo Saka.
Saliba will now miss Arsenal’s next three league games, including the tantalizing matchup with Liverpool this weekend. Even though it’s unclear if players like Saka or Odegaard will play against the Reds again.
Neville has cautioned Arteta that it won’t be acceptable to blame poor performance on absent players.
“No Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard or Jurrien Timber against Bournemouth? I get that but we’re talking about playing Bournemouth, who are a good side, but they have a squad of 20 to deal with Champions League football and a couple of injuries.
“We know players will be missing at certain points in the season,” said Neville on Sky Sports as reported by The Mirror.
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“Saka always plays. If you were going to say you miss him once, twice, three times in a season then Bournemouth away would be one of the games you may say, ‘Okay that’s fine we have a squad to deal with it’.
“Arsenal without Saliba against Liverpool – they had the excuse a couple of seasons ago [when he was out injured in the run-in] and that was accepted, he was a big loss. But they’ve added players to the squad to be able to deal with that now.”
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