Rio Ferdinand admits he was shocked after seeing what Mikel Arteta did at Arsenal recently

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Mikel Arteta has come under a lot of criticism since Arsenal’s defeat to Newcastle United in the Premier League.

St James’ Park hasn’t been a happy hunting ground for the Gunners. They had won just one of their last three visits before the game last Saturday, and that record now reads one in four.

Not a single Arsenal player played at their usual level that afternoon, and Newcastle United deservedly picked up all three points.

Some of Arteta’s decisions in that game seem to have caught Rio Ferdinand off guard.

Rio Ferdinand ‘surprised’ by Mikel Arteta’s decisions during Newcastle vs Arsenal

Arsenal looked nothing like their usual selves against Newcastle.

The Gunners normally start really strong, are dominant across the pitch and create loads of chances. The movement of their attacking players causes opponents all sorts of problems.

However, at St James’ Park on Saturday, Newcastle had a very comfortable afternoon and didn’t really have to work overly hard to get the three points.

Arteta got a few things wrong against the Magpies and we’re sure he will have put his hands up behind the scenes and taken responsibility.

Ferdinand now thinks he has spotted a few mistakes that Arteta made, and he has claimed that some of the Arsenal manager’s decisions shocked him.

He said in his latest YouTube video: “I’ve never really questioned his decision-making up to this point, Arteta, but looking at the substitutions and the players he had available, I was surprised at some of the decisions he made this weekend.

“In the full-back area, [Jurrien] Timber is playing left back when you have [Oleksandr] Zinchenko on [the bench]. Playing Partey out of position at right-back instead of in midfield.

“We’ve seen him do it before and it has worked and I get it. But, when you are down to the bare bones with injuries, you’ve got to play the players who are available in their natural positions.”

READ MORE: One Mikel Arteta decision in Arsenal defeat to Newcastle shows why the transfer window was a failure

Ferdinand is ignoring a few facts

In an ideal world, we too would’ve liked Arteta to use Timber at right-back and Partey in the middle of the park, but it wasn’t so simple.

With regards to the left-back position, Arteta had to deploy someone who could contain Anthony Gordon. Riccardo Calafiori and Takehiro Tomiyasu were both unavailable, and we’ve all seen Zinchenko’s defensive problems against good wingers.

So, the Arsenal boss chose Timber, which was the right thing to do.

On the other side, Ben White had barely completed one training session before the game, so there was no way he could’ve started. With Timber playing on the opposite side, Partey was the logical option there.

We’re not really surprised with the team Arteta started against Newcastle. The tactics weren’t up to the mark and the players didn’t turn up either. those were the real problems.