Martin Keown has claimed that he believes Arsene Wenger would question Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta’s use of Sambi Lokonga and Nuno Tavares of late.
The Gunners got back to winning ways after our recent loss to Liverpool, beating Newcastle 2-0 this afternoon. It wasn’t the perfect performance, with a number of chances wasted a little unnecessarily in the opening 45 minutes, including Tavares who had decided to shoot from distance ending our attack.
He did make up for it in the second-half when putting Bukayo Saka through in on goal to score the opening goal, but Martin Keown believes his selection may have been questioned had Arsene Wenger been working with the club.
Keown said: “I wonder whether he(Wenger) might’ve said to him, ‘why are you not playing Tierney this week?’ I wonder if he would’ve said, ‘why is Lokonga playing?’
“I admire that Arteta wants to stick with players – I’m not saying he’s blinkered – and says, ‘I believe in you enough to play you again.’
“It’s very unfortunate for Tierney because he’s one of Arsenal’s best players.”
I have to admit, we were certain that Tierney would be coming back into the line-up after Tavares’s performance last weekend, although with Manchester United coming up on Thursday, it could well be that the Scot is simply being kept out of harms way, especially with a jam-packed schedule to contend with in December.
Could Arteta have seen something in training that made him name Nuno to start again? Or could he have been selected to play as the more attacking of the two?
Patrick
it’s clear that MA actually recognizes the insipid nature of his offensive tactics and as such realizes that Nuno has more potential to generate legitimate offensive opportunities than Tierney…not to mention, of course, we were facing the perfect opponent for Nuno to get back on the horse, after he shat the bed at Anfield, plus it would logically keep Tierney healthy for Thursday…now if only Arteta would place some much-needed focus on shooting from distance and penalty kicks, as what we’ve witnessed in that capacity thus far, including from our young Portuguese LB, has been pitiful
Keown displaying his idiocy yet again. Sambi? Best player on pitch. Tavares, assist.
Wenger has never been known for his
defence resilience.In the early 2000s,the gunners were strong due to Adams and company.
Arsenal 5 Boro 4,Spurs 4 Arsenal 5..Acceptable because the gunnets were winning.If the gunners had lost,imagine the protest
2021 he can advise but MA shd decide
Dropping young players for having bad games can ruin them, sending them out and saying dont make the same mistakes and learn was/is the right thing to do. Tavares and Lakonga are two very exciting players and the futures of Arsenal, they need to make mistakes when they are young and to not be banished for them. Arteta was 100% wrong over Lacca byt 100% right over Lakonga and Tavares.
Blimey Reggie ! Thats twice in just two days I have agreed with you. It worries me!
Keep taking the tablets Jon, you will be better in a few days.
Newcastle was perfect for Sambi and Tavares to get some confidence back, thought it wise on Arteta’s part.
Odegaard was sloppy and not very influential against their low block.
Arteta made some good changes in the 2nd half; picked up the pace, switched Saka to LW, and brought on Martinelli.
Last year maybe a defensive sub may have come on to protect the lead.
Nice to see Arteta going for their throat with Martinelli rather than a defensive sub to protect the lead. Hopefully that will be more commonplace going forward.
Saka off Martinelli on. No switch
Put him on the right wing and drop saka. I remember Ozil getting blasted for losing the ball and not chasing back. Saka is the worst defender on the park and before the retards come out firing we have 11 defenders and 11 attackers.
Ozil was scapegoated like crazy by Emery. Imagine taking the most creative player in the league for 4/5 seasons (2nd in the other one) and focusing on his defending ability and body language instead of his strengths. Worst management I’ve ever seen.
Ozil was a liability …..End of
Bobs And your Ozil travesty of a comment is the WORST mistaken post I have seen.
That 100% idle and fraudulent player was the best departure our club has ever had.
At least 5 years too late but what a day to rejoice when he FINALLY went!
FYI, body langauge is thr single biggest giveaway of what anyones true position and thinking is!
OZILS BODY LANGUAGE WAS SHOWING UNINTEREST BECAUSE THAT WAS THE TRUTH!
Lol lol lol at Saka being the worst defender on the park. Seen a few idiotic comments on here but that one takes the biscuit.
Arteta is very conscious of what lies ahead and we should also allow room for creativity delopment of the new recruits for adaptability and preservation of strong men for the big six. Tierney is kept for a purpose and the Coach knows what he is doing.
I agree with both of them starting.
I think Tierney should get a start soon though as we need to keep him match fit and the competition will keep them both at their best
Nuno Tavares is much better than Wenger’s Andre Santos or Kolasinac and Sambi Lokonga is way ahead of Wenger’s pet freebie Elneny. Tavares is getting game time because Tierney does not need to be rushed and further injure himself. With Mikel we have able deputies who can walk into any top 6 team. That is the difference between a pragmatic manager and a senile one who hired cast offs and cheapos. See the goal scored by Martenelli and you can know how well Mikel trains his lads. That was a top class finish, glad we have such an exciting manager/ coach.
SANTOS 🤣 That guy was the worst defender I’ve ever seen in the PL and I’m not even exaggerating.
stop making an issue with Tavares and the Liverpool game. Not taking anything away from Tierney but overall id rather he played LB. Liverpool are one of the best teams in the world presently and some believe Salah is the best world player. Nuno is very new to the team and young but has already had some fantastic games for us. Players of all ages and levels make mistakes, give the ball away and have off days against lesser opposition. Liverpool on there day can make anyone look poor.
Hahaha, Keown projecting his own opinion onto wenger. Trying to Psychoanalyse or mind read what wenger would have done or said in this situation?
Keown please, just admit that it’s you that would prefer Tavares and Lokonga to be out and not wenger. Lol
And is that the same wenger that left us with dead players like Ozil, xhaka, Mustafi, Bellerin, Kolasinac, Elneny etc.
To me wengers opinion on the modern way of playing football is as helpful as turning to Mourinho for advice on how to play winning football in 2021, he was very good in the early 2000’s. Now 20 years have passed.
Wenger himself was very good in the late 90’s to early 2000’s too. He was fairly decent until 2010 when the Fabregas era came to an end., But ever since then to 2018 when he got sacked he had turned us into a proper weeping boy club. Individual player performances became the saving grace for him nearly each season after that.
Right now Wenger would be the last person i turn to for advice on what player to buy or play. Would be another disaster.
I think it was good management to keep Nuno and Sambi in the team after the Liverpool game.
We should always have expected to beat Newcastle at home, so there was no need to rush KT back, keep him fresh for UTD.
What a strange thing to say, even by Keown’s usual standards, I can only guess he was trying to pick up on Arteta saying that Wenger would be welcome back at Colney and The Emirates anytime?
Tavares actually had a good first half against Liverpool, kept Salah pretty quiet, yes he made a mistake that led to a goal in the second half but certainly wasn’t the only rabbit in the headlights in that period
That defeat meant that he had played in one of the four this season, Tierney played in the other three and must take some responsibility for Chelsea’s two goals in one of them
At the moment Tavares is the better option, that may change of course if KT gets back in and does enough to keep the shirt
Not sure on what basis Keown is suggesting Lokonga shouldn’t have been selected at all to be honest
In other words both were in on merit