Wayne Rooney sparked debate by insisting Arsenal lack a genuine world-class individual despite their position atop the Premier League and leading their Champions League group.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree with the fact that Arsenal don\u2019t have an out-and-out superstar, a world-class player that you can pin everything on,\u201d Rooney insisted on The Overlap Fan Debate . \u201cQuality-wise, Arsenal have got a lot of quality. Have they got that superstar\u2014that [Cristiano] Ronaldo, Didier Drogba, Sergio Ag\u00fcero-type player that\u2019s going to make a difference?,\u201d the ex-Manchester United striker added. \u201cI don\u2019t think they have, but they know how to win games, and they\u2019ve shown that over the last three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rooney made those remarks before Arsenal then failed to beat bottom club Wolverhampton Wanderers on Wednesday night. The exchange turned on how to define \u2018world class\u2019. The term remains subjective but is commonly taken to mean one of the best players globally, either overall or in a particular position.<\/p>\n
Seen through that lens, the case that Arsenal possess world-class figures is strong. Rooney\u2019s compatriot Declan Rice is presented as one such example; the Englishman is described in the squad as one of the planet\u2019s leading midfielders and his terrific performances this season have been instrumental to the Gunners\u2019 ascent. At the back, Gabriel and William Saliba are noted among the best central defenders in the world and form a crucial part of the most stubborn defence in European football this term. David Raya has been highlighted as integral to Arsenal\u2019s impressive clean sheet record and is described as an elite goalkeeper. Bukayo Saka continues to be cited as one of the most consistent and explosive wingers in the world, even if his performances this season have been less eye-catching than in the past.<\/p>\n
Despite his critique of the playing squad, Rooney believes the manager will be central to Arsenal\u2019s title hopes. \u201cOf course, Arsenal can win the league but there is still a third of the season left to go so anything can happen,\u201d said Rooney. \u201cNo one has mentioned Aston Villa\u2014I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll get anywhere near it but they\u2019re still within touching distance.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rooney said Arsenal lack an out-and-out superstar, yet the team know how to win games. Fans divided.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6945,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,969],"tags":[1162,826,1047],"class_list":["post-6946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}