Rob Holding is only a symptom of Arsenal's lack of squad depth, and their struggles in the latter stages of the Premier League cannot be blamed on him, according to football write Jonathan Wilson.
Arsenal face the biggest game of their Premier League title challenge on Wednesday night when they travel to Manchester City for a top of the table clash.
With only six games left in the season, City trail Arsenal by five points heading into the match. However, the current leaders have struggled in recent weeks to see out games and get wins, drawing their last three ties and allowing Manchester City to catch up.
Speaking on The Football Show, football journalist Jonathan Wilson broke down what he feels the issue is at Arsenal in the tail end of the season.
"I've been trying to avoid saying that they've bottled, but they've bottled it," Wilson said. "It's not as simple as that, it's to do with squad depth.
"I'm very reluctant to say, 'ah it's all Rob Holding's fault', but would they have let in seven goals in the three games id [William] Saliba had been there? Probably not."
"I think there's been problems in midfield as well," Wilson added. "But Holding is a symptom of that lack of squad depth. There's been all this talk of, 'nobody thought Arsenal could challenge for the title'. This is why!
"The squad is not deep enough, and we're really seeing that now. Holding is getting the grief for that, and that's not really fair."
Arsenal's struggles against the set play
One of their biggest weakness, which could be City's biggest strength agains them, is Arsenal's weakness at defending cross set plays such as corners.
However it was only at the latter part of the season that this weakness was truly exposed.
"If you look at set plays, Arsenal hadn't conceded a a goal to a cross set play all season, up until that [James] Tarkowski header for Everton," Wilson said.
"From that moment, and I think it probably was the Brentford game that alerted people to that weakness, everybody just started bobbing in in-swinging corners.
'[Aaron] Ramsdale is not good with dealing with that. I think there's been three further goals from cross set plays since that Tarkowski goal. That is a big worry for them."
Football on Off The Ball brought to you by Sky. All the football you love in one place across Sky Sports, BT Sport & Premier Sports.
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
