Martin Keown says Arsenal needs formation change to relieve pressure off Mikel Arteta

According to former Arsenal center-back Martin Keown, the team is in desperate need of a formation change to remove some of the pressure on the Gunner's head coach Mikel Arteta. Arsenal have come under massive pressure after having lost their first two games of the Premier League. In the two defeats, they have not even managed to score a single goal.

The north London side was swept aside by Chelsea as they ran victorious with a 2-0 win thanks to first-half goals from Romelu Lukaku and Reece James. On the opening day of this year's Premier League season, Arsenal lost 2-0 to newly promoted side Brentford. Sergi Canos and Christian Norgaard scored to give the Bees a dream start to their 2021-22 season.

Sadly things do not look great for Arsenal as they now face Premier League defending champions Manchester City in their match with Kieran Tierney and Ben White both a doubt for the clash. There were eight other senior players who were absent from the London derby after COVID-19 has rocked the Gunners' camp.

Change in formation could help Arteta says Keown

According to Keown, the five at the back could be the change that is needed so Arteta's side can take some pressure off of themselves. He also said that he sympathises with Arteta because the team is missing so many players and faced a Chelsea who were able to shift gears on demand which essentially is what caused problems for Arsenal.

Keown said on Premier League Productions: "I think we should go to a five. It’s an easy thing to say, we’re not on the training pitch. I sympathise with the manager because players are missing but still, there’s enough in that group to have done better than they did today. Chelsea have got other gears to go into, they were purring around that pitch and never really were tested. They just did enough in the second half and I think there’s a massive gap now between the two clubs."

Growing list of absentees is proving problematic according to Arteta

Arteta had admitted that the long and growing list of injuries is what is proving to be problematic and they are trying their best to make their way through this situation.

Arteta said in a post-match press conference, "It’s really challenging at the moment. We’re missing nine players, and the majority of them are big senior players. It’s what we have. We put a team out there that will probably be unprecedented in the history of this football club. But credit to the boys how they’re trying the passion that they tried to bring to the team. They are playing with a lot of courage in this situation which is tough when you know the highlights are on you. They are trying their best but at the moment it’s not enough to win football matches."

(Image Credits: AP)