Ian Wright blasts two Chelsea stars who ‘cost them the game’ in 1-0 defeat by Arsenal

Ian Wright has laid into two Chelsea stars for letting their team down in the Blues’ 1-0 defeat by Arsenal on Sunday.

Enzo Maresca‘s men suffered another loss on the road at the Emirates, with Mikel Merino’s first-half header from a Martin Odegaard corner handing Arsenal all three points.

Wright was working as a pundit on the game for Premier League Productions, and picked out two Chelsea players who should have done better for Arsenal’s winner.

He first blasted Christopher Nkunku for failing to track Merino’s run across the front post.

‘It’s a great header but you look at the attention to detail from Nkunku,’ a bewildered Wright said.

‘The manager has put him there for that specific reason. That’s cost them the game. Merino’s movement is great but he can only head it because Nkunku doesn’t do his job.’

Wright then turned his attention to goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, pointing out that he was too far off his line and busy focusing on other Arsenal players rather than trying to keep out Merino’s looping header.

‘He shouldn’t be there. He needs to be back on his line. It was strange,’ Wright added.

‘He’s got space where he is but he’s got involved with an Arsenal player. He probably would have caught it if he was in the right position.

‘It’s such poor goalkeeping at this level, it’s not good enough.’

At the other end, Chelsea managed just two shots on target in the game and rarely looked like getting an equaliser.

Wright admitted that losing Cole Palmer to injury shortly before the match was a blow, but was still critical of Chelsea’s performance.

‘They missed Cole Palmer today, they looked very tepid without him, (Nicolas) Jackson and (Noni) Madueke,’ Wright said.

‘It’s a whole different scenario for Arsenal if those are playing. Arsenal won the game which is great but I wanted a bit more and Chelsea were so poor today.’