22 February 2024 , 18:15
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Mikel Arteta has refused to rotate his side because he doesn’t trust the entirety of his Arsenal squad, according to Chris Sutton.
The Gunners are in the Premier League title race along with Liverpool and Manchester City, having managed to keep pace at the top of the table. They have done so despite being able to call upon such an array of players as their rivals.
Arsenal slipped to a 1-0 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Porto on Wednesday night. They failed to have a single shot on target and then conceded a long-range goal in the 94th minute to go home empty handed.
Arteta made just one substitution during the game, bringing on Jorginho for Leandro Trossard in the second half in a move that was in-keeping with a trend this season. Liverpool have made 215 changes to their starting XI across their 39 games this season, while City have made 160 in the same number of matches.
By contrast, Arteta has only made 99 changes in 36 games, tending to stick with his tried-and-tested core group. “I take your point about the subs and Mikel Arteta not using as many as Manchester City and Liverpool,” Sutton said on the It's All Kicking Off podcast. “I suppose with Liverpool, they've had so many injuries anyway, but it comes down to having faith in the squad.
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“That probably tells you a fair bit about Mikel Arteta's mindset that he doesn't trust everybody implicitly. Hence why, come the summer, we should probably expect to see him move in the market and try and get his squad strength up.”
Arteta was angry in his post-match interview in Portugal. He was frustrated by the number of fouls Porto committed but conceded his side hadn’t been aggressive enough in their approach. Arsenal will be back in action against Newcastle in the Premier League on Saturday and Sutton says the jury remains out on their season.
Mikel Arteta has a core group of favoured players (Diego Souto/Getty Images) HAVE YOUR SAY! Do you agree with Chris Sutton? Comment below.
“If I'm being totally honest, I think it's very hard to judge at this moment in time,” Sutton added. “I'm not going to judge Arsenal on one defeat in Porto. I mean, Porto played it brilliantly, didn't they? I watched most of the game. They got in Arsenal's faces. They were disruptive.
“I think there's a stat that the ball was only in play for 50 minutes. You know, they [Porto] clearly thought about the game plan. I thought set pieces were an enthralling watch the way that they picked up the Arsenal players and made it extremely difficult. I mean, that's not a gimme Arsenal are going through.”
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