Lee Dixon is full of praise for Mikel Arteta as the Spaniard rebuilds Arsenal by giving chances to youngsters at the club.
The Premier League is one of the toughest competitions in the world and sometimes having a lot of experienced players can help.
Arsenal has focused on reducing the average age of their players in recent transfer windows with the likes of Willian, David Luiz and Sokratis Papastathopoulos leaving the Emirates.
Ben White, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard are much younger players and have been leading the club’s revival in this campaign.
It is a gamble by Arteta, but it seems to be paying off and former Arsenal star, Dixon believes Arteta has single-handedly made Arsenal a much better club.
‘It has got to be up there,’ Arsenal legend Lee Dixon tells Sportsmail. ‘I think great credit has to go to Arteta for giving these players opportunities.
‘It is a gamble. Not many clubs go down the route of signing players under 23 years of age when you have youngsters coming through at the same time.
‘They are a very, very young side and with that comes the risk of inconsistency, which we have seen from other teams but also this side this season. You have to take that on the chin because that is what you get.’
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Arteta took a major gamble to trust these young players, and it seemed he would lose his job when Arsenal started this campaign poorly.
However, they have since turned their form around and could end it inside the top four.
Although this is his first job as a senior manager, Arteta has displayed great managerial skills and impressive judgement.
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Funny how two of the three players you mentioned as being let go by Arteta in favour of youthful players were actually either kept on longer by Arteta or signed by Arteta. Mikel extended 33yr old Luis’s contract when his initial contract was up. He also signed a 32yr old willian on a 3 yr contract.
So let’s not pretend that Arteta has full faith in youth. Having said that, Arteta and Edu are “now” consciously buying younger players.
Correct, in the beginning when we all knew that we had talented young footballers chomping on the bit, they were left out for “experienced pros” That failed badly with us finishing out of Europe and our worse finish for a quarter of a century. Now we are embarking on another plan, which so far looks to be working better, far better. How much further on would we be if faith was shown and young players given their heads. Saliba, Gouendouzi, Mavropanos, ESR, Martinelli, Willock, Saka and AMN. We dont know but from the beginning many of us were saying our youth doesn’t let us down and they dont. Lets hope it all keeps moving forwards because we have a very talented squad, thanks to some help of heavy investment.
👍👍👍
You Always need a good mix of youth and experience…..The bumps at Old trafford and Goddison shows that We’r too young…..
Pires, dont use the old lemon, too young. Our players are very experienced at playing in the Premier league. We lost because on the day we were not good enough, not too young.
This is just the beginning, better days ahead.
revolution?? slow your roll, it’s way too early to use such terminology
5 more under 24 year-olds and release/sell the deadwood and ‘revolution’s completed’…..😀
Older players who need to go……. Bellerin
Holding
Chambers
Xakai
Elneney
Auba
Older players who need to keep… Leno
Partey
Lacca