Ian Wright believes Arsenal’s Champions League elimination at the hands of Bayern Munich showed that Mikel Arteta is missing an ‘X-factor’ player in the mold of Kevin De Bruyne.
After an absorbing 2-2 draw in north London, Joshua Kimmich’s powerful 63rd-minute header proved decisive in Wednesday’s quarter-final second leg, with Arsenal left frustrated by a well organised and obstinate Bayern team at the Allianz Arena.
Gabriel Martinelli spurned the best opportunity as the Gunners dominated for large periods of the first half, but the visitors could not make the pressure count in what has been a painful week for the club.
The disappointment came just three days after Arsenal were rocked in a 2-0 defeat at home to Aston Villa in the Premier League and Arteta’s men must shake themselves off and regroup if they are to get their title push back on track away to Wolves this weekend.
While Wright has sung Martin Odegaard’s praises throughout the campaign, he believes the Arsenal captain could be benefitted by the addition of a flair player with killer instinct in the summer.
‘A player like Vitinha at Paris Saint-Germain. You know when you watch a team and you think: “You know something? He might do something”,’ the legendary ex-Arsenal striker said on the Wrighty’s House podcast in aftermath of Bayern’s win.
‘The first half [Odegaard produced] against Villa was one of the best performances I’ve seen from him for a long time and he’s been playing very well this season.
‘I’m talking about someone with that bit of X-factor that we need. We’ve got a load of good players.’
Wright added: ‘X-factor like out of the blue, bam, he’ll do something like that. We need that, we need to find that, man, because that’s what wins these games as well.
‘If people ain’t got the mindset to know that: “Listen, this is a half-chance game for me”…
‘I played against Des Walker, I played against Manchester United, I know I’m not getting a lot of chances so I’m going to focus on the one half chance. That’s the mentality that’s got to come.’
Wright will continue to be patient with Mikel Arteta’s squad as they gain experience and learn from their mistakes.
‘Ben White today, I know he must be absolutely knackered, gone,’ he went on.
‘For him to be going across to close down a guy with that much time, just in and around the box to cross it into a very dangerous area, where another load of our players were on their heels, it’s what we’ve got to learn.
‘That’s why I will have patience with this team because they still have to learn those things. Then you do need, I don’t care what anyone says, someone with X-factor, someone with a Kevin De Bruyne vibe, they make something happen.’
Surprised by the level of ‘negativity’ within Arsenal’s fanbase in the wake of their defeat to Aston Villa, Wright called on supporters to ‘shake it off’ ahead of the side’s Premier League run-in.
‘As sad as it is to see, some of the negativity off of the Villa was really surprising,’ Wright continued.
‘It worries me because I feel that patience is needed and, like Mikel Arteta said, it’s taken some teams six or seven years to get that and we’ve done it in two and we’re still progressing and we’re still not over in the season.
‘We’ve just had a couple of results that have caught us. We were looking the other way, turned the corner and the frying pan has hit us.
‘That is what has happened and we’ve just got to shake it off and keep going now, instead of everybody getting despondent because of what’s going on.’
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