Arsenal’s transfer window oversight will make them “predictable” – Emmanuel Petit
World Cup-winning midfielder Emmanuel Petit spoke to Squawka about his two former Premier League clubs, Arsenal and Chelsea.
Petit looked at Arsenal’s summer transfer business and the main weakness Mikel Arteta has in his team at the moment.
He also spoke about Enzo Maresca’s start to life at Chelsea, the Blues’ top priorities and their transfer strategy under the current ownership.
Jump to:
- Arsenal’s lack of plan B
- The mess Enzo Maresca has to deal with at Chelsea
- Chelsea’s ridiculous transfer strategy
- Chelsea shouldn’t prioritise one competition
- Reece James must be frustrated with injury issues
Earlier this year, you said Arsenal needed to sign in four positions – a winger, a striker, central midfielder and central defender. They strengthened in three of those positions, but missed out on a striker. Do you think that could hurt them at all this season?
Yes, definitely. They signed (Raheem) Sterling, they signed (Mikel) Moreno, they signed (Riccardo) Calafiori and they are good signings. And I’m very happy with Kai Havertz’s start to the season so far, I think he’s doing well. But we saw on Saturday that Arteta and Arsenal need a plan B up front.
I had the feeling after the game that Arsenal still play the same way all the time. When they are good on the pitch it’s enough to beat the opponent, but when they are not good individually, and it happened with Declan Rice and (Martin) Odegaard also not playing well, that’s not enough to beat the opponent.
They’re missing presence up front. Kai Havertz always tries to come deeper in midfield to link up with the midfield players, sometimes he’s asking for the ball behind the defenders. But that’s not enough. This is not his natural capacity. So they need someone up front, a typical striker that can convert chances. You get the feeling sometimes that Arsenal are predictable for the opponents when they are not playing well. So they need a plan B and at the moment they don’t have one.
Chelsea have had an up-and-down start to life under Enzo Maresca. What have you made of his time at Chelsea so far?
I’ve said it before, if I’m a player in Chelsea’s dressing room right now, I would be asking myself a lot of questions. Did I make the right choice to come here, because there are probably 40, 45 players in the dressing room. I was laughing about that with somebody else, but it’s not a laughing matter, because how can you manage a training session with 45 players? The maximum is 25 and that’s already enough on the pitch.
But when you get 40, 45 players, how can you make everyone happy? How can you convince them to put the team first when you have so much competition between all the players. They are all young, some of them have shown big things already but it’s a big gamble on the future. And for me the unity is not there. It will take a long time for Maresca and his staff to work out the first XI.
You need to get a hierarchy in the dressing room between players. If you put every single player on the same level and you have 45 players, it’s a f*cking mess. It’s a f*cking mess, you have no idea. It becomes hell for the manager. If you ask Pep Guardiola, (Jurgen) Klopp, (Carlo) Ancelotti, all the big managers in the world, if you ask them if they would be happy to manage 45 players every single day in training, they would laugh at you.
What did you make of Chelsea’s business in the transfer window? Were there any positions which, strangely, you felt they needed to strengthen and didn’t?
To be honest with you, I’m not looking at it anymore because it’s becoming ridiculous. The fact that you have so much money, I’m happy for you, honestly I’m happy for you. But the way you spend it, come on, we’re not in an American sport. It’s Europe. There are rules, Financial Fair Play for example, that’s why they sign players on seven, eight, nine-year contracts just so you don’t break the rules.
I don’t get it, honestly. I think the fans at Chelsea are lost as well. They’ve signed so many players, and they signed another one on Friday. I was laughing at it. I’m thinking, ‘okay they’ve signed (Jadon) Sancho, fair enough. Okay. One more.
I think soon or later they’ll have to build another stadium just to put the players that don’t play! I’m laughing but it’s a pity to watch.
Chelsea learned their fate for the Europa Conference League on Friday. Is this a competition they should be aiming to win this season? Or is a good Premier League finish more important?
Both of them. When you have so many young players, they need to gain experience, they need to convince themselves that they are able to fight for the top prizes every three days. Top clubs are like this, top players are like this. So if you want to be a top player at Chelsea, who are a top club, then you need real ambition. So you cannot choose between competitions.
You need to fight for every single thing, to get silverware at the end of the season, simple as that. If I were a Chelsea player, a young player, 23 years old, I want to win everything. Don’t ask me to make a choice between the Premier League and the Champions League. I want to beat Real Madrid. I want to beat Manchester City. I want to beat everybody. So don’t ask me to make a choice, otherwise maybe they’re the wrong club for me. But I don’t think Chelsea think this way. I think they want to win everything and if you are a Chelsea player, you need to think like that.
Reece James has been sidelined at the start of this season by another injury. What should Chelsea do with their captain?
It reminds me of (Abou) Diaby with Arsenal, he was always injured. You never know what’s going on with him, every time he comes back, he must be so frustrated. For Reece James to spend most of your time on the injury table with the physios, it must be very frustrating.
Do you know how hard it is to come back at the right level physically and mentally to compete, to play an intense game? And you have to do it all the time, again and again and again. Mentally it must be so tiring. So it’s a pity because the fact that he’s not playing, and there are not many English players on the pitch, so Maresca had to give the armband to (Enzo) Fernandez. I’m not happy with that.
Emmanuel Petit was speaking to Squawka on behalf of BetVictor.
