Arsenal: Gary Lineker suggests Mikel Arteta’s decision vs PSG shows he doesn’t trust one Gunners star
Presenter Gary Lineker has suggested that Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta’s decision against Paris Saint-Germain proves he doesn’t trust one of his players.
Arteta is under intense scrutiny at Arsenal as they have had another trophyless season under the Spanish head coach.
Arsenal have fallen away in the race for the Premier League title, with the north London outfit likely to finish second for a third consecutive season.
The Gunners also failed in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, while they were knocked out of the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The Premier League giants were deservedly beaten 3-1 on aggregate by Paris Saint-Germain, who were comfortably the stronger side over two legs.
PSG have a much stronger squad than Arsenal with Arteta short on attacking options, but the head coach did not use teenage sensation, Ethan Nwaneri, who was an unused substitute in the second leg.
Lineker has argued that Nwaneri is not yet fully trusted by Arteta, who may feel that he’s “not quite ready”.
“Yeah, I mean, to the people he brought on, even though they were trailing with defenders, weren’t they? Ben White and Calafiori,” Lineker said on The Rest is Football podcast.
READ: Arteta leaves Arsenal wondering ‘what might have been?’ again as ‘arrogant’ star humbled vs PSG
“Nwaneri you thought may have got a little run at it at some point, but maybe he thinks he’s not quite ready for that big occasion yet. He’s still a very young, young man.”
Before the second leg, Micah Richards urged Arteta to give Nwaneri “more minutes”.
He said: “I think Nwaneri has to have more minutes.
“I think he’s a player that can make an impact in the game because he’s very unpredictable.
“We knows he’s got quality but I think he needs more minutes.
“If the game is still 0-0 after 60 minutes, then Arsenal have got a real chance, but we know the quality of PSG.”
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Despite Arsenal’s lack of a clinical edge in attack, Arteta boldly argued that his side were better than PSG over two legs.
“I think so,” Arteta claimed when asked whether Arsenal were better than PSG over two legs.
“Especially across 160 minutes. I’m saying that and they are saying that because they [the PSG bench] just told me that.
“When you analyse both games, who has been the best player, the MVP, has been the same player, the goalkeeper.
“And the Champions League is decided in the boxes and it’s won the game for them because obviously today after 20 minutes and what happened in London as well, the result should have been very different.
“It gives me so much pride but at the same time I’m so upset, so annoyed that we didn’t manage to do it.”
