Ben White was supposed to be the rock in defence for Arsenal this season but on matchday one, he was perhaps one of the weakest links in the starting line-up for Mikel Arteta’s side.
The Gunners paid a fortune to sign him this summer but on Friday, the two Brentford forwards absolutely bullied him along with his centre-back partner Pablo Mari – throughout the 90 minutes.
And while a lot of good things were said about the centre-back over the past few weeks, pundit Gary Neville provided a few eye-openers after the 2-0 loss to Brentford.
Neville said after the match, as quoted: “You know when we say he’s good on the ball? That was something we used to say 15 years ago. I actually think most centre-backs now at top six clubs are good on the ball.
“They can get it out of their feet, they can play good passes they can play diagonal switches.
“Harry Maguire is good on the ball. John Stones is good on the ball. Van Dijk is good on the ball… We’ve got to stop saying that. Every centre-back now in the top six is good on the ball. The difference will be, can he defend his goal?
“If you’re playing Arsenal next week, you’re going to be looking at that and thinking ‘we’ll stick it on him, we’ll put it up against him’, because he is a target.
“This is not an attack on Ben White, it’s just a reality check tonight that he’s at a club now where he’s going to be judged differently than he was last season at Brighton.”
According to Fotmob, Ben White had a rating of just 5.8/10 which is the lowest amongst all the four defenders.
The centre-back managed to make only one clearance during the whole match and he surprisingly lost as many as six duels.
Ben White's Premier League debut for Arsenal:
◉ 45.5% duels won (5/11)
◉ 42.8% aerial duels won (3/7)A tough start. 😩 pic.twitter.com/jctlgBcddn
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) August 13, 2021
White did have a passing accuracy rate of 90% but he could hardly match up with the likes of Ivan Toney in the air, losing five aerial battles.
It’s not that Ben White is new to the Premier League so he will not need time to get used to the physicality of this league. And if he does not pull up his socks soon enough then Arsenal could be in knee-deep trouble.
Arsenal face Chelsea and Manchester City in their next two Premier League matches and there’s every chance that Ben White could be labelled a failure if he cannot help his side keep clean sheets in these crucial games.
