We spoke earlier about the defensive crisis that Arsenal are going through at the moment, and discussed whether Mikel Arteta may have no choice but to play Kieran Tierney. Now the boss himself has confirmed this outlook and admitted that it is causing big problems wit his team selections.
“It is what it is,” Arteta said on Arsenal.com:. “At the end if we have to accept the challenge, it’s opportunities for other players to do that. In the ideal scenario, we have to be in charge to make those decisions. It’s forcing us to make it for the wrong reasons, but as well, we need to accept the reality and move forwards.”
He goes on to say why things are so bad at the moment, especially with the massive fixture congestion causing even more fatigue and therefore injuries. “We have a lot of joint injuries that are very difficult to predict. We have some through tackles for example that again are quite difficult to predict. The other one probably is overload – the amount of minutes to play.
“The knock-on effect of not having one or two players available means it puts more strain and minutes on somebody else. That’s not a good change because the consequences and load of all the players starts to be too high, much higher than what you want to do, but it is where we are.”
Thomas Partey of Arsenal is challenged by Alex Iwobi of Fulham during the Premier League match between Fulham FC and Arsenal FC at Craven Cottage on December 08, 2024 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
It was much discussed on JA this week about why Arteta disrupted our starting line-up while leaving our only dedicated left-back, Kieran Tierney, on the bench, but it seems that he may have had a rethink ahead of tonight’s game against Monaco. He said about the Scotsman: Yeah, he is ready and he’s training really well and he’s going to have an opportunity for sure with the way the team is looking at the moment,”
“It’s for that reason and because he’s earned it as well with the way he’s behaved and the way he’s been with us because he’s willing to do it and when that happens you have to give opportunities to those kind of players.”
It will be very interesting indeed to see how Arteta sets up his starting XI tonight, and I can’t wait!
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