Rio Ferdinand has played down Arsenal’s chances of winning the Champions League for the first time this season, claiming Mikel Arteta’s side have ‘gone backwards’.
Arsenal cruised through to the round of 16 after winning six of their eight matches in this year’s new-look league phase.
And on Tuesday night, the north Londoners sent out a message of intent to the rest of Europe with a record-breaking 7-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven to all but confirm their place in the quarter-finals.
But the Gunners find themselves in what many consider to be the tougher half of the draw, with a quarter-final clash against either Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid awaiting Arteta’s men.
After a steady start in this season’s competition, Real Madrid, the reigning champions, announced themselves as a serious force once again with a comprehensive play-off win over Manchester City.
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The Spanish champions followed this up with a first-leg victory over Atleti in this week’s Madrid derby at the Bernabeu, setting up a potential meeting with Arsenal in the last eight.
‘I think Arsenal are probably the fourth best team at Champions League level on that side of the draw, not even in the competition on that side of the draw,’ former Manchester United and England defender Ferdinand said on Rio Ferdinand Presents.
‘Behind Liverpool, behind Real Madrid, behind Atletico Madrid, behind Paris Saint-Germain. They’re fifth, I put Arsenal fifth at Champions League level. Mad that, isn’t it?
‘I don’t think it’s that they can’t win under Arteta, I just think they’ve gone further away than where they were the last two years because, points-wise, they were almost breaking records and it was only Manchester City playing against them.
‘So they’ve gone backwards from those last couple of years, I believe that in that sense.
‘I don’t go as far to say that they couldn’t win because of Arteta. I think it’s just the recruitment maybe need to be shifted a little bit.’
Ferdinand says ‘it doesn’t make sense’ that a club of Arsenal’s stature allowed themselves get to a place where they have been forced to deploy a midfielder, Mikel Merino, as a false nine.
‘You can’t get to a place where you’ve got a CDM playing centre-forward when you’re trying to win the league, the Champions League. It doesn’t make sense,’ Ferdinand added.
‘Something’s not right there. They had an opportunity in the January transfer window to go and get a forward.
‘I think they would argue that if the right one isn’t available they won’t buy and I respect that.’
According to Ferdinand, Madrid’s abundance of ‘match-winners’ makes Carlo Ancelotti’s side the favourites to lift the trophy once again.
‘I agree [that they’re the favourites]. They have got more match-winners than anyone,’ he continued.
‘It’s phenomenal. The crazy thing is that they have four or five genuine match-winners that all want to be the match-winner.
‘They don’t want to share the stage.’
Can Arsenal win this year’s Champions League?
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