Arteta on possible collision course with former Chelsea manager over desperation to ‘protect’ Saka
Mikel Arteta and Thomas Tuchel could be in for some awkward meetings in the comings months as Arsenal look to ‘protect’ one of their England internationals.
Arteta and Tuchel have a strong enough relationship publicly, the former having called the latter “one of the best coaches in the world” when he was appointed Gareth Southgate’s successor at England.
The Arsenal manager added that he “spoke to a few of the players and they had a smile on their faces straight away,” although he wasn’t drawn into discussing the future of Three Lions outcast Benjamin White.
Arteta has faced Tuchel five times in his coaching career, winning two of three games against the German’s Chelsea side before losing last season’s Champions League quarter-final to Bayern Munich on aggregate.
But the pair will encounter each other again now Tuchel has officially started his role as England head coach, as talks are planned with White, Declan Rice is likely to remain crucial to his country’s hopes of winning silverware and Saka has become one of their best players.
But with Saka sidelined after undergoing hamstring surgery, Sami Mokbel of the Daily Mail says it will be ‘intriguing’ to see where he fits in the England picture across Tuchel’s first games.
The German starts with a World Cup qualifying double header against Albania and Latvia in March, while Arsenal are ‘hopeful’ of Saka returning to training by late February.
It could be that, depending on the recovery process, Saka remains unavailable until April, but the initial plan is for him to feature at some point in March – a month in which Arsenal face both Manchester United and Chelsea.
Tuchel could thus consider calling him up for those England fixtures.
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‘It goes without saying that Saka would be one of the first names selected in the England squad when fit,’ Mokbel writes. ‘It also goes without saying that Arsenal will want to protect their star forward during the early stages of his playing comeback.’
Arteta feels Ethan Nwaneri “can adapt” to help fill the void left by Saka’s injury, especially after his impressive full Premier League debut against Brentford.
“Part of that development is patience, managing frustration or managing expectation, or you expect that everything is going to go so fast, like the previous things happen and it’s not the case,” Arteta said.
“So we’re building him, he’s already played a lot of games a lot of minutes for the age that he’s got and he fully deserves that.”
The Arsenal manager also hopes White can return from his knee problem to feature again soon.
“It might be a possibility,” he said of the defender’s chances of playing this month, “but he hasn’t done anything yet with the team. The knee looks well, but he needs to load.
“I am positive he might be back quite early, but we will have to see.”
