Shearer fears for Arsenal star found out against Man City – ‘he won’t sleep tonight’

Alan Shearer reckons an Arsenal star will have trouble sleeping after his part in the 3-1 defeat to Man City, though his mistakes can be rectified against Aston Villa.

Arsenal surrendered top spot in the Premier League for the first time since gameweek three on Wednesday night. The Gunners are now winless in three and the 3-1 defeat to Man City ensured Pep Guardiola’s side wiped out what remained of Arsenal’s lead.

Mikel Arteta’s men do still have a game in hand, but with the second fixture between the pair taking place at the Etihad, City are once again firm favourites for yet another title.

Arsenal were their own worst enemies at times, not least when conceding the first goal to Kevin de Bruyne. A sloppy backpass from Takehiro Tomiyasu gifted the Belgian a chance he did not pass up.

Elsewhere, Eddie Nketiah has been a capable stand-in for Gabriel Jesus who continues to recover from a knee injury picked up with Brazil.

However, when Nketiah was needed most, he faltered in front of goal.

The 23-year-old missed a golden opportunity to put the hosts in front when glancing an inch-perfect cross by Oleksandr Zinchenko cross harmlessly wide.

Nketiah later missed a second – albeit harder chance – in the 89th minute that would’ve teed up a grandstand finish.

Speaking to Amazon Prime in the post-match fall-out, Newcastle legend, Alan Shearer, claimed Nketiah will have trouble sleeping after his missed chances.

Shearer attempted to explain what went wrong for the forward, though stressed the importance of finding the net next time out against Aston Villa (Saturday, 12:30 k.o) to help lay the missed chances to rest.

Shearer on Nketiah; Arteta on defeat

“He doesn’t get the connection,” said Shearer (via the Metro).

“I think he hits it with the shoulder rather than the forehead that he was trying to connect with to guide it in.

“He won’t sleep tonight. But you have always got the chance to rectify your mistake and three days’ time he will hopefully put one in the back of the net and he won’t remember this.”

Arteta also spoke to the broadcaster and insisted it was Arsenal that lost the game, not Man City winning it.

“We lost it, and I say we because we lost it,” Arteta told Amazon Prime.

“It was an incredible battle between two teams and when we had them, we just gave them the goals. Absolutely gave them the goals.

“And against this team they are going to destroy you and on the other hand we had three big, big chances and we didn’t put them away and this was the difference.”

READ MORE: Mikel Arteta has ‘even more belief’ in Arsenal title win despite damaging home loss to Man City