Theo Walcott challenged Mikel Arteta to be bolder with his team selection and insisted Eberechi Eze should be thrown straight into Arsenal’s starting lineup after the international break.
Arsenal have enjoyed another busy transfer window as eight new signings came through the door to supplement Arteta’s squad.
Viktor Gyokeres and Noni Madueke arrived earlier in the window to provide more much-needed attacking depth before the Gunners reacted swiftly to Kai Havertz’s injury by moving to bring in Eze for £68m from Crystal Palace.
Despite Arteta’s increased depth in the forward line, the Arsenal manager has still faced criticism for his tactics, especially after his safety-first methods saw the Gunners lose 1-0 to Liverpool at Anfield on the weekend.
Eze watched from the bench before producing a bright substitute cameo on debut, and Walcott is adamant that Arteta should wait no longer to start the England international to inject some more attacking verve into his side.
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‘The club have really backed him and now he has options everywhere, but he likes to go back to his instinct of ‘we need to stay in the game’,’ Walcott said on the latest episode of It’s Called Soccer.
‘It was working up to a certain point but that is where you bring on the substitutions a little bit earlier – Eze did so much more with his first two touches than Martinelli did [all game].
‘I said it a couple of weeks ago when Jack Grealish arrived at Everton and he started the first game on the bench – play them straight away!
‘It’s important to start well in these games. You can win the game in first 20 mintues but you can also lose it and they didn’t want to lose that game full stop.
‘You can tell that by Merino starting who has only played 20 minutes in the Premier League [before this game].
‘Don’t get me wrong he’s a great player and he does a job but you have players that are gamechangers in moments and you need to let them do that.’
While Eze looked bright off the bench down the left wing, it was another poor afternoon for Gabriel Martinelli on the left flank, who was kept quiet by the makeshift full-back Dominic Szoboszlai.
And Walcott challenged the Brazilian to fall back on instinct rather than being constantly governed by his own thoughts if he is to get back to his best.
‘Szoboszlai was incredible, but the reason he was incredible is because he wasn’t tested once,’ the former Gunners forward said.
‘You have a central midfielder at full-back, that would be music to my ears, but not at one point did Martinelli test him.
‘He overthought things. Madueke, on the other side, played to his strengths, and he didn’t overthink things.’
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