Gary Neville names three Arsenal players who have a particularly worrying flaw

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Arsenal trio David Luiz, Shkodran Mustafi and Sokratis Papastathopoulos have been criticised by Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville for making challenges “when they don’t have to challenge”.

The Gunners’ defence has been a major problem this season and cost Mikel Arteta’s side dear in both games since their return to Premier League action.

David Luiz made two glaring errors against Manchester City, resulting in Arsenal going two down and the player being sent off, having only been on the field 25 minutes.

The Gunners backline was not in good form against Brighton either, with Mustafi allowing Neal Maupay to get in for the south coast side’s late winner.

Neville feels that Arteta needs to take a leaf out of Sir Alex Ferguson’s book at Manchester United if he wants to stamp out the mistakes from his defence.

“They just need defenders with better concentration,” Neville said on his Sky Sports podcast. “There were elements of me that were emotional when I was a player Sir Alex Ferguson would knock it right out of me.

“He always said I hate emotional defenders. He thought defenders have to be ice-cold.

You are gonna make mistakes as a goalkeeper and a defender. But it’s the second mistake where you try to win it back and you give away a penalty. It’s where you try and win it and you can’t win it.”

Discussing Arsenal’s predicament, Neville added: “You get too many defenders who try and win the first ball and try to dive in, and we’ve seen that with Arsenal’s defenders over the years.

“David Luiz, Mustafi, Sokratis when he plays, they like to challenge when they don’t have to challenge. They feel like they have to win the ball, and sometimes it isn’t there to win.”

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Neville is spot on here – Arsenal’s defence isn’t made of up particularly strong parts, with far too many players in the defence being caught out far too often or, like Luiz’s case against Man City, making calamitous mistakes.

Pablo Mari is reportedly set to join the Gunners permanently and William Saliba is to link up with his new club soon after his season-long loan at Saint-Etienne, so at least there is some optimism, but it’ll take time for Arteta to mould his defence into something more watertight.