Wayne Rooney questions 'strange' Mikel Arteta decision to drop Arsenal star vs Man City

Wayne Rooney believes Mikel Arteta’s selection gamble backfired (Picture: BBC Sport)

Wayne Rooney fears Mikel Arteta ’s ‘strange’ decision to bench Viktor Gyokeres could have a damaging impact on the Arsenal striker’s confidence.

The Gunners knew a win at the Etihad would all-but secure their first Premier League title since 2004, but despite a much improved performance Arteta’s side slipped to a damaging 2-1 defeat .

Manchester City will go top of the table on goal difference with a win over Burnley at Turf Moor on Wednesday with five games remaining.

Should both teams claim maximum points then the destination of the title will boil down to a straight gunfight which City would feel confident of prevailing in given their array of attacking options.

Gyokeres, Arsenal’s top scorer with 18 goals in all competitions, was dropped for Sunday’s summit meeting with Arteta opting to start with Kai Havertz instead.

The Germany international scored his side’s equaslier, charging down Gianluigi Donnarumma’s clearance, but missed two huge chances either side of Erling Haaland’s 65th minute winner.

Gyokeres was introduced to the fray with 14 minutes, including injury time, remaining but failed to adjust to the pace of the game and didn’t register a single touch during his time on the pitch.

Viktor Gyokeres was dropped from Arsenal’s starting line-up vs Man City (Picture: Getty)

‘I think these decisions if he comes on and scores the winner or scores the equalising goal obviously it’s the right decision,’ Rooney told the BBC when asked about Arteta omitting his £60m summer signing from such a significant game.

‘I thought with him not starting, Arsenal would’ve tried to sit in there. It was a strange one him not starting because you bring a No.9 in which they’ve been looking for all season, and I actually think he’s done OK, to not start him in such a big game I think that might effect him.’

Despite the picture looking bleak following a run of four successive domestic defeattl, Rooney remains adamant there is still plenty of room for optimism from an Arsenal perspective.

Kai Havertz missed two huge chances against Man City (Picture: Getty)

He said: ‘This title race is not over yet, I still feel like there are some more twists and turns to come. It is is obviously going to be tight but City have got one more game to try to win, so I still have Arsenal down as slight favourites.

‘I’ve been in this situation myself, where you need to win all your games for the title.

‘You look at your games and you think well we should win this one, or that one, but it never pans out that way.

‘From now until the end of the season it is just going to be down to which team keeps their composure the best – that’s who will win it.’

Arsenal have let a huge lead slip in the title race (Picture: Getty)

Arteta certainly agreed with that sentiment and was adamant he saw enough from his team to suggest the race will go down to the wire.

He said: ‘The biggest disappointment is that we did a lot of good things during the game.

‘They created some individual moments and we created the biggest chances of the game but we didn’t score.

‘There was an element of luck and hitting the post was unfortunate. It has to go your way and it didn’t today.