{"id":78393,"date":"2025-08-13T00:20:42","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:20:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/78393\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T00:20:42","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T00:20:42","slug":"nico-williams-performances-criticised-after-arsenal-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/78393\/","title":{"rendered":"Nico Williams&#8217; performances criticised after Arsenal defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> Former Arsenal target Nico Williams is facing criticism for his pre-season performances after his team\u2019s latest defeat to the Gunners.<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"674\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/ca-osasuna-v-athletic-club-la-liga-ea-sports-1024x674.jpg\" alt=\"PAMPLONA, SPAIN - DECEMBER 21: Nico Williams of Athletic Club warms up prior to the LaLiga match between CA Osasuna and Athletic Club at Estadio El Sadar on December 21, 2024 in Pamplona, Spain. (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce\/Getty Images)\" class=\"wp-image-316525\" title=\"Nico Williams' performances criticised after Arsenal defeat 2\"\/>Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal were one of a number of clubs interested in signing Spanish winger <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycannon.com\/tag\/nico-williams\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Nico Williams<\/a> in the last few transfer windows.<\/p>\n<p>Available for a reasonable release clause and off the back of a strong campaign, a summer move away from Athletic Club seemed inevitable. Yet the winger ended up turning all suitors down to renew his contract instead.<\/p>\n<p>It was an admirable decision, choosing to stick with the club of his youth despite the likes of Barcelona circling, but the goodwill generated by the renewal doesn\u2019t seem to have lasted long.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/spain-v-georgia-round-of-16-uefa-euro-2024-2-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"spain v georgia round of 16 uefa euro 2024 2\" class=\"wp-image-303436\" title=\"Nico Williams' performances criticised after Arsenal defeat 3\" \/>Photo by Dan Mullan\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Athletic Club have lost five consecutive pre-season friendlies, including last Saturday\u2019s 3-0 defeat to Arsenal. Williams has played 252 minutes in those games, but he\u2019s yet to score a goal.<\/p>\n<p>Spanish outlet <a href=\"https:\/\/pressreader.com\/article\/281887304386701\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Sport<\/a> report that Williams isn\u2019t performing at the level expected after his contract renewal, and add that he\u2019ll be pushed a little harder this season.<\/p>\n<p>The player\u2019s performances are reportedly fueling doubts around Athletic\u2019s preparations for the new campaign, and the defeat to Arsenal went down particularly poorly \u2013 as the fifth in a row and with a first-half injury to Unai Gomez.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"666\" loading=\"lazy\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/athletic-club-v-atletico-madrid-copa-del-rey-semifinal-1.jpg\" alt=\"BILBAO, SPAIN: Nico Williams of Athletic Bilbao celebrates scoring the 2nd goal during the Copa del Rey Semifinal match between Athletic Club Bilbao and Atletico de Madrid at San Mames Stadium on February 29, 2024. (Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce\/Getty Images)\" class=\"wp-image-294432\" title=\"Nico Williams' performances criticised after Arsenal defeat 4\" \/>Photo by Juan Manuel Serrano Arce\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>With Champions League participation on the horizon, the team would have hoped to be more competitive against some of their pre-season opponents. Losing to Arsenal and Liverpool is one thing, but the team have also suffered defeats to Racing Santander, PSV Eindhoven, and Alaves.<\/p>\n<p>Athletic Club kick off their La Liga campaign against Sevilla on Sunday, who finished 17th last season and have only won one of their own pre-season games.<\/p>\n<p>Should Athletic Club lose again this weekend, it promises to be a toxic start to Williams\u2019 post-renewal career.<\/p>\n<p>Related Posts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Arsenal target Nico Williams is facing criticism for his pre-season performances after his team\u2019s latest defeat to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78394,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[50957,32172,403,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-78393","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-athletic-club","9":"tag-nico-williams","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}