‘Gave the ball away more than Raya’: Pundit says £35m Arsenal player was so sloppy vs City

Arsenal beat Manchester City on Sunday, but, as strange as it sounds, it wasn’t a vintage performance from the Gunners.

Indeed, the north London club weren’t at their very best against City.

Maybe it was nerves or maybe it was a lack of quality, but, for one reason or another, the Gunners didn’t look sharp against the Premier League champions – despite the result.

Speaking on the Highbury Squad YouTube channel, David Hillier has been discussing Arsenal’s sloppiness and he pointed out that Oleksandr Zinchenko was one of the worst offenders in terms of giving the ball away, claiming that the £35m player was actually giving the ball away more than David Raya at times.

Zinchenko was sloppy

Hillier shared his verdict on Zinchenko amid criticism of Raya.

“It was difficult for him in the first-half, and he put the team under pressure a few times, but so did Declan Rice when he kicked the ball out in the first few seconds and then he headed the ball back to Zinchenko who let it go out for a corner. I don’t see anyone digging out Zinchenko. He didn’t have a great game, he worked his hardest, but he gave the ball away as much as anyone else, he gave the ball away more than Raya did, in the scheme of things they’re only players doing what the manager wants to do,” Hillier said.

Nervy

It has to be said that Zinchenko did look nervy in the opening minutes against City, but, in all honesty, can you blame him?

This was a massive game for Arsenal, but it was even bigger for Zinchenko as he was coming up against all of his former teammates and his former manager.

Zinchenko will have been nervous heading into this one, and it did show at times, but, at the end of the day, he did help Arsenal to all three points, and you can’t ask for more than that.