The pundit was covering the Monday night clash at Selhurst Park on talkSPORT and felt Arsenal lacked width due to Arteta’s approach to the game.
Arsenal picked up a hard-fought 1-0 win at Palace last night thanks to Martin Odegaard’s second-half penalty.
The Norwegian took over penalty duties from Bukayo Saka and made no mistake from the spot as he handed Arteta’s men a well-deserved lead.
The Gunners dominated right up until the 67th minute when Takehiro Tomiyasu was sent off after picking up a second yellow card.
It was a harsh dismissal but Arsenal did have opportunities to wrap up the game long before Tomiyasu was sent off, with Eddie Nketiah going close on two occasions.
Despite a commanding display, Murphy was unimpressed with Arteta’s decision to play Partey at right-back last night.
Murphy on Partey
Partey operated at right-back last weekend against Nottingham Forest as he took up the inverted full-back role to give Arsenal the extra man in midfield.
But Murphy questioned whether Arsenal needed Partey in that role last night as he feels they lacked width against Palace.
“See I’m not sure on the benefit of having [Thomas] Partey in there to be honest,” Murphy said.
Commentator Sam Matterface then asked: “Can you understand why he’s trying to do it and is it just not working? Or do you not understand what he’s doing?”
“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.”
Arteta’s approach seemed to work well up until the red card as Arsenal completely dominated the game.
While Ben White has proven to be an effective player at right-back, Arteta is clearly keen on using the Englishman at centre-back for the time being.
That could change once Oleksandr Zinchenko comes back into the side after his return from injury. But Partey has performed well in his new role so far and Arteta will undoubtedly be satisfied with the £45 million man’s recent displays.
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