Arsenal 4-2 Leicester: What Cooper has to change ahead of crucial games

What Steve Cooper needs to change

Bournemouth are a team coming off the back of their best Premier League performance last season, Southampton a rocky promotion battle, Ipswich Town are riding a wave of optimism, and Nottingham Forest survived despite an attack from the PL's legal team. The Foxes need to get a minimum of six points from the available 12 to make this a worthwhile run of games.

In terms of team selection, what worked so well last campaign seemed to have been abandoned with Enzo Maresca's departure: Justin and Ricardo Pereira as the fullbacks, with Stephy Mavididi and Abdul Fatawu in front of them. The Welshman has used Justin on the right and dropped Pereira, while having not played our best wingers together.

Furthermore, in midfield playing all three DMs - Harry Winks, Oliver Skipp, and Wilfred Ndidi - is a little over the top, and leads to Ndidi becoming an attacking player. Although he has performed well, I would have preferred a more dedicated creative talent like Facundo Bounanotte starting the matches. The King Power side lack creativity, and Bounanotte has show himself to be plenty creative when matching with Fatawu or Mavididi. The former Tottenham Hotspur pair remain preferred, so at least Cooper has that right.

If Leicester City are to get points in the next four games, defending has to improve. Mads Hermansen can only do so much to keep the Foxes in games. I would not say Caleb Okoli plus Wout Faes has been the main issue, but they certainly need Cooper to give them the proper support and instructions to do well. I think being flanked by Pereira and Justin should offer them the support they need from pacy and impassioned defensive players. Meanwhile, one of Winks or Skipp need to drop back deeper while the opposition have the ball: the centre-backs need a reactive player to push out of position.

Against Ipswich in particular, the Foxes must perform consistently across both halfs of football. Whatever Cooper has to do to get the team actually maintaining a decent level of performance and mentality, he has to do. Honestly, it baffles me this team can go from being better than Tottenham to being dominated everywhere we go. The mentality has to be sorted.