Arsenal's 'bad planning' not Sterling's 'fault' - Nevin

A few hours after Justin Kluivert's hat-trick for Bournemouth at Newcastle on Saturday, I watched another player – someone with many similarities who once possessed that confidence. He scored 56 goals in two seasons for Manchester City, looking unstoppable for club and country.

The now 30-year-old Raheem Sterling's introduction against Aston Villa at the weekend was less glorious, bordering on painful. I had been at Emirates Stadium on Wednesday to witness the Gunners beat Tottenham and saw Sterling start the match.

It was not a bad start but many of his own fans turned on him the moment he made the slightest error or did not attempt to beat his man.

Sterling was then in a 'Catch-22' situation. Should he take risks with the ball, as every good forward must if he wants to create, but then risk the certain wrath of the fans if it doesn't work out?

Or does he play safe, which will quickly lead to the same berating from the stands. His confidence on the ball must be shot to pieces, knowing that if Bukayo Saka was out there doing the same things he would not be getting any stick at all.

Saka has plenty of credit in the Arsenal North Bank, Sterling sadly has none. Even so, he bravely tried to be positive when he came on late against Villa and again I was there down from Scotland to witness the pain.

With time ebbing away and Arsenal needing a winner, Sterling had a couple of positive runs but then lost the ball. All the frustration of the evening was then aimed at him even though he had just come on, hardly the main culprit for those squandered two points.

It will probably never work for him at Arsenal but he was the only realistic alternative striking option that Arteta had on his bench.

That wasn't Sterling's fault. That was down to bad luck with injuries but also bad planning for not acquiring more back-up for precisely this situation.

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