Playing With 10 Men Before City's 3rd Goal : Arsenal Interim Coach Shifts Blame To Saka, Bosnian Defender

Published: December 15, 2019

Arsenal interim head coach Freddie Ljungberg has not taken responsibility for the incident that happened in the first half of his side's 3-0 loss to Manchester City in the Premier League on Sunday evening.

Arsenal were playing with ten men when Kevin De Bruyne curled home City's third goal in the 40th minute as Bukayo Saka was still waiting to come on to replace the injured Sead Kolasinac.

The Swedish coach revealed post-match that the substitution was not made on time because the Anglo-Nigerian winger had a lot of clothes on and also pointed an accusing finger at the Bosnian left-back.

Kolasinac was allowed to go off the pitch before Saka eventually entered into the fray at minute 41.

''Obviously, Sead went down, then our player started getting ready. The weather meant he had a lot of clothes on. We tried to get him on,'' Ljungberg was quoted as saying by arsenal.com.

''That's something we need to learn with young players, for them to get ready quicker. But then when you are injured and you are down, you need to stay down until the players are ready so we can make the change.''

Manchester City found the net three times without reply thanks to a brace from De Bruyne and an additional tally from Raheem Sterling.

Ahead of their trip to Goodison Park next weekend, the Gunners are ninth in the table with 22 points, seven points off the Champions League places.

Igho Kingsley

Photo Credit : arsenal.com