Arteta Men are all set to be back in action this weekend after a convincing victory against Paris last Wednesday. Saka and Co will look to pounce against the arch-rivals Southampton. The Saints stopped the Gunners in the title race last season leading to Arsenal missing out the title by a fraction.
The only disappointment of that night is the injury of the defender Jurrien Timber. Amid his injury there are speculations that Asian wing back Tomiyasu might come back after the injury. The new signing Mikel Moreno is also expected to feature in the game.
Will Moreno be the Arsenal’s new Anchor ?
Mikel Arteta has been quite positive about the signing of the Mikel Moreno from the very beginning. Like his arrival, his debut on the pitch was slightly delayed due to the shoulder injury he sustained in his first training session with the Gunners.
Finally the Gunners got the chance to glimpse the magic of Spaniard Mikel Moreno and his touches were nothing short of sorcery. After that performance, Moreno is expected to start the next game against Southampton.
” He will bring an unbelieveable football brain, he’s very inteeligent, the way he occupies spaces and decides when to play the ball and when to stop is something which is very rare to see, he’s really good at both offensive and defensive halves of the game” said Arsenal coach.
Arteta on Partey
Mikel Arteta stressed on the importance of having Thomas Partey in the midfield. He is a defensive wall for the ever expansive Arsenal side. Arsenal legend was all praise for the professionalism shown by the Ghanian midfielder
” He’s a massive player for us, he’s shown that week in week out. The way he came back post-holidays was probably the best condition that he’s been. Now it’s about managing him and he’s done really well. ” said Arteta.
Difficulty to maintain unbeaten run without the key players
Arteta says it’s about getting adopted to different situations. and learning to function without even the key players.
” We had to modify a lot of players in the training due to injuries, Tomiyasu and Timber are close to returning to the pitch”
Tomiyasu had played lot of minutes last season before the injury and Arteta is not willing to take any risks. He will come back only after getting fully recovered. Ben White’s injury has left Arteta no choice but to select Tomiyasu for the squad.
Arsenal have been in a very difficult situation courtesy of Odeggard’s injury, but still the club have managed to get results.
” Every three days we have an unbelievable test. On Tuesday it was Paris, before that it was Leicester. Two completely different games and ways of playing.” said Former Arsenal player.
” We had to be little different than what we usually are. Martin has a massive impact on the our style of play. since he’s not available we need to adapt” said Arteta
“That’s what we are trying to do. We had a really difficult fixture list after the international break, but we adapted. The team competed in all games. We have shown a lot of consistency and adaptability” said Gunner’s gaffer.
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