Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is claimed to have been impressed by 17 year-old Lino Sousa, and is tipped to promote him to the first-team squad after Kieran Tierney’s latest injury.
The Scotland international has suffered a knee injury on his return from the international break, and is potentially ruled out for the remainder of the campaign, and with Nuno Tavares failing to impress in both of his last two starts, the manager may have to look at alternative options with so much on the line.
We still hold the advantage in the race to finish inside the top-four, knowing that winning our game in hand will give us a three-goal cushion over Spurs who currently sit in fourth ahead of us on goal difference. There is little leg-room with big clashes against Man United, Tottenham and Chelsea left from our remaining nine matches, and it could definitely seem a risk to continue with Tavares with the defensive frailty he has been showing.
The boss could now turn to the 17 year-old according to The Mirror, who Football.London states has been impressing in training as well as coming off the bench in our recent friendly match with Brentford during the international break.
At this point, I’m spending a lot of time considering alternatives to Nuno in the back four, and the more I think about it I can see Cedric moving to the left, with Holding coming into the middle to allow Ben White to go out to the right against Brighton, but it would definitely be great to see Sousa come off the bench and stake a claim for a role in our side. I haven’t personally seen enough to think that he is ready for the role as a starter yet, but if he is already impressing Arteta then he could well be the latest young star to flourish in our side.
Will Arteta stick with Tavares this weekend?
Patrick