Following his loan to Marseille, Arsenal’s Nuno Tavares started the season on an ideal note, scoring three goals in his first four games from his left-back position.
That was unsustainable in the long-run, and was bound to dry up, but few expected the Portuguese’s performances to plummet, as has been the case over the past few weeks.
We already covered previous reviews of the Arsenal man’s performances, and his outing against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League wasn’t any better.
Local newspaper La Provence, for example, outright pan him, explaining that ‘the summer hit has aged very badly’.
One of the reasons for this is the Arsenal defender is ‘too greedy in his attacking choices’, all the while being inaccurate with his crosses and every time he went up the pitch.
He also ‘lost many balls’, and even had a chance to redeem himself by setting up former Gunners star Alexis Sánchez, but even that cross was too close to the goalkeeper.
L’Equipe, down their end, give him a 4/10, and echo much of the faults, stating that while he was ‘very active’ on the left-hand side, he ‘often lacked precision in the final third’.
On top of that, he ‘isn’t always reassuring defensively’ either, which is something Arsenal fans will be more than aware of following his stint as a starter under Mikel Arteta last season.
