‘Was that always the way?’

Rio Ferdinand has criticised Man Utd winger Antony for failing to “beat anyone” in their 3-2 loss to Arsenal in the Premier League on Sunday.

Goals from Eddie Nketiah and Bukayo Saka put the Gunners 2-1 up after Marcus Rashford’s brilliant opener before Lisandro Martinez equalised with just over half an hour to go.

But it was Arsenal’s day as Nketiah grabbed his second of the match in injury time to beat Man Utd and reinstate their five-point lead at the top of the Premier League table.

Antony offered very little during the match with Oleksandr Zinchenko keeping him quiet for much of the match and Man Utd legend Ferdinand thought it was “surprising” to see the Brazilian fail to beat a man.

On Antony, Ferdinand told his Vibe with Five YouTube channel: “The concerning thing for me with somebody like Antony is that he can’t beat anyone – and for a Brazilian that’s surprising!

“He just doesn’t beat anyone and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘Was that always the way?’

“I’ve seen clips of him when he was at Ajax and he was somebody who used to beat people.

“I saw [Thomas] Partey – who I wouldn’t put down as like a roaster, a sprinter – absolutely burst past him, and I’m thinking, ‘Woah, he [Antony] hasn’t got much power in them legs!’

“So, yeah, he’s a tricky winger, but tricky wingers you want them to still be able to beat the defender.

“Even Zinchenko, he’s a great player, great footballer, but defensively you get him one-v-one and you’re a wide-man, you should feel, “I can get hold of this guy and I can deal with him”.

“You want a winger to be going past full-backs without any hesitation at all and with Antony, as much quality as he has on the ball and his technique and stuff like that, [he doesn’t get past players].

“When I played with Nani, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs, Antonio Valencia, even Ji-Sung Park would get past the full-back. Not just by going past them but he’d play it and run and get the other side of them.

“I want to see that from Antony. Listen, its his first season so you’re going to have to give him a bit of time, doesn’t matter how big the price tag is, but I need to see more glimpses of that.”

READ MORE: 16 Conclusions on Arsenal 3-2 Man Utd: Zinchenko, De Gea, Nketiah, Ten Hag, innit?