Ahead of the Champions League contest against Sevilla, Mikel Arteta was asked about young players like Bukayo Saka being part of the leadership group.
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Arsenal have an important Champions League contest against Sevilla to be played on Tuesday night. The Gunners suffered a shock 2-1 defeat to Lens in their last group game. Hence, the fixture on Tuesday will hold plenty of significance for them. Arsenal made an impressive start to the Premier League and are one of only two sides still remain unbeaten in the competition. It is something they would also look to replicate in Europe.
At the weekend, Arsenal played out a 2-2 draw against Chelsea in the Premier League. One of the talking points from the game was Bukayo Saka captaining the side after Martin Odegaard was substituted. The English international captained the Gunners for the first time in the game. Considering Saka is only 22 years of age, the decision did surprise quite a few people. Ahead of the Champions League contest against Sevilla, Mikel Arteta was asked about young players like Bukayo Saka being part of the leadership group.
“I think is really important for them because the role that they have in our way of playing, in our team and in our club has to be mirrored with the leadership level that they should have around the team to make it grow. I think it’s been a perfect environment; we have a really good mixture of players, teams and experiences in that group and it’s going to be a really valuable time to spend with those guys to understand what happens behind the scenes as well,” Arteta, quoted by Arsenal.com, replied.
There has been an intense competition to be the first-choice goalkeeper at Arsenal this season between David Raya and Aaron Ramsdale. Asked if there’s added pressure as a goalkeeper, the manager replied, “There is a pressure of playing for big clubs where you have to win and you have to be at your best, and you have someone next to you that is pushing you every single day. But we can go player by player or position by position – you will tell me what’s happening with the left-back, the holding midfielder – you’ve asked Jorginho a question already – and Gabriel Jesus is here and there’s another question on that. That’s the debate and that’s the beauty of the game as well and the fact that you have a lot of options is going to make those talks more frequent.”
The Arsenal manager then spoke about the lessons learned from the defeat to Lens in their last Champions League game. “There were a few from that game, especially that in the Champions League you cannot give anything away. Both boxes are tremendously important to have control of the game, and there are going to be moments that can get away very quickly. You have to understand why this is happening and how the game went away from us, but there was a lot in our side. To lose the game the way we did, even though looking about two times, we didn’t deserve that result,” he explained.
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