Date: 28th October 2014 at 8:45pm
Written by:

Nacho Monreal, I remember when it came straight out of left field that we were signing the Spanish left-back from Malaga. There was a real sense that we’d made a great signing; an experienced, reliable left-back who had established himself in La Liga with Malaga.

Given the fact Kieran Gibbs is regularly on the sidelines through injury, the need for Arsene Wenger to be able to call upon a reliable back-up is paramount and in Nacho that’s what we had – it even got to a point, not long after his arrival in north London, where there was a genuine debate amongst fans at whether Monreal should be our first-choice.

In the last twelve to eighteen months, though, Gibbs hasn’t been in the treatment room as regularly and the England international has really kicked on in his development – Gibbs is arguably one of the only real standout performers for us this season.

Gibbs rise has coincided with the decline – well, the perceived decline that is – of our Spanish left-back. The real turning point for Monreal was the absolute mauling he faced against Romelu Lukaku when we lost 3-0 at Goodison Park last season and the fans, as well as Nacho himself, have never seemed to be able to get over that.

The fact Monreal is now our fourth choice centre-back is laughable and in fairness, when played at the heart of defence alongside Per Mertesacker recently, Monreal has performed exactly how you’d expect your back up left back to perform.

I mean, what were we all expecting really? Monreal isn’t deemed worthy as a fourth choice centre back because he has the attributes to carry out the position. No, he’s there because basically Arsene Wenger went: “Right, which full back wants to play at centre half if needed to?”

If Nacho has a poor performance at left-back, by all means moan about that but give the guy a break if he’s played in central defence. What more were you honestly expecting?

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

 

2 responses to “Is THIS Arsenal star made a scapegoat each week?”

  1. Iceko says:

    Not Nacho’s fault, obviously, but he reall shouldn’t be starting centreback for us. Ever. Wenger really screwed this up. He even said himself he would have to replace TV5 but never did so..

  2. Carolyn Capalbo says:

    This article is spot on. I feel bad for the guy though. He is doing his best given the situation.