I wonder how many fans that were calling for David Luiz to not be given a new contract after his absolutely dire performance against Man City on our first game back after the restart.
He actually started on the bench, with Arteta saying he wanted to “protect him” as his contract situation was still an issue, but the Boss had to use Luix when Mari went off with a season-ending injury. Luix was only on the pitch for 25 minutes, but in that time he managed to gift Man City a goal, and then get himself sent off, leaving the Gunners to play most of the second half with ten men.
Despite his abject apology, many people on here were in no mood to forgive the Brazilian, and the abuse was even worse when he was actually given a new contract anyway.
Since he was re-signed though, Luiz has upped his game, and was one of the stars in yesterdays historic win over Arteta’s old side, and Arteta had nothing but praise for him after the game for turning things around. “This is part of football, you can go down but I didn’t have any doubts about David’s reaction,” the Boss said on Arsenal.com.
“He held his hands up after that [City] game and he didn’t have to do that because we all make mistakes. The way he has been training and helping others has been phenomenal and I am delighted that people can now see this side of him as well and praise him because he deserves it.
“He has won everything in different countries so he brings that [experience] with him. Not only that but I want him to perform on the pitch and he is doing that again in a really good way and I’m really happy for him today.
“David doesn’t need a lot of management,”
“What he needs is that we trust him and we don’t doubt what he can do.
“The best way to do that is to make him play. He can say that throughout his career he has had some difficult moments and some incredible moments, but big athletes go through those moments and I’m happy that he’s at the level he’s playing now.”
Well, Arteta has been proved right, and Luiz has proved he is still full of class despite the abuse he often gets from fans. Like Xhaka, should we all now forget our problems with the ex-Chelsea star and trust him and support him all the way through next season?