Arsenal legend Seaman slams ‘strange’ Arteta decision as the Gunners lose to Man Utd
Arsenal legend David Seaman was ‘shocked’ by Mikel Arteta’s decision to bring off Martin Odegaard during the Gunners’ 3-2 defeat to Manchester United on Sunday.
The Gunners took the lead in the 29th minute thanks to a Lisandro Martinez own goal, but Bryan Mbeumo capitalized on a loose pass from Martin Zubimendi to equalize before half-time.
A superb strike from Patrick Dorgu gave Man Utd the lead shortly after the break, before a Mikel Merino equalizer appeared to give way. Arsenal a share of the loot.
However, just three minutes later, Man Utd summer signing Matheus Cunha produced a magnificent curling effort from outside the box to give the Red Devils all three points.
When Man Utd came back from a goal down to take the lead, Arteta brought on Eberechi Eze, Viktor Gyokeres, Mikel Merino and Ben White, with Odegaard one of the players to make way.
And Arsenal legend Seaman was left baffled by the decision to remove Odegaard with the ‘strange’ move causing disruption in the Gunners’ XI.
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Seaman said on Premier League Productions: “I was shocked if I’m honest.
“It was 2-1 at the time, it was almost a knee-jerk reaction to United’s second goal, I don’t know why but it put a bit of tension in the crowd.
“You take your captain off and he didn’t look very happy. It was a real surprise for me because he’s our playmaker, take him out and then everything changed because Declan (Rice) had to go back and then in comes Eze who hasn’t done much for Arsenal yet.
“It was a strange substitution and bringing four in as well really disrupts the team’s moment.”
Seaman was not alone in his opinion, with former Man Utd midfielder Owen Hargreaves agreeing, he added: “I was surprised too.
“I love Eze but it was Odegaard who made the pass because United were sitting deep. Eze is not that player, he is a dribbler and there was no space in the middle of the pitch.
“Odegaard could have picked a pass, his body language was very telling, he was surprised to come out. I don’t think you should take the captain off, you need his presence.”
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Norway international Odegaard insisted Arsenal were “not good enough” in the defeat to Man Utd but they need to bounce back when they travel to Leeds United on Saturday.
Odegaard said: “It wasn’t good enough from us and we need some time to analyze it. We should have done better, but now it’s time to stick together more, keep working, push ourselves more and bounce back.
“In the first half we were the better team, we scored a goal and had control but a lot of giveaways. We managed to get to 2-2 but then they scored straight away.
“It’s never going to be easy in this league, we know that. I thought we were well prepared for the game, we started the game well and in the second we saw the dynamic change a little bit.
“Our performance definitely should have been better and we have to learn our lesson and keep working.
“Every game is a big challenge, that’s part of football. We’re still top of the league so we have to keep going and bounce back straight away, that’s the only cure.”