So it looks like the Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta has been handed a one year extension to his contract with the Gunners, despite all the injury and fitness problems last season restricting the Spaniard to just 12 appearances in all competitions, but if he recovered will he be one of the LANS (Like a new signing!).
According to a Metro report, the respected Spanish journalist Kike Marin broke the news on social media and I cannot see much reason for him to be making it up.
It will come as a surprise to some Arsenal fans and those in the football media, because the emergence and then the consistent and ever improving form showed by our young French midfielder Francis Coquelin in the second half of the season had put Arteta´s place in the team under real pressure.
But the 33-year old is still very useful and not just because of his vast experience and leadership skills. Arteta does offer the Gunners something different on the pitch, with his precise and metronomic passing giving us a much more creative platform in the centre of the pitch.
It could be that Arteta is preferred in some games and Coquelin in others, where we expect to be under much more pressure from the opposing team. But there is also the transfer market to consider and if Wenger does do what many of us are hoping for and sign a Schneiderlin or Carvalho, where would that leave Arteta?
Sitting on the bench with Rosicky I presume. I just can’t see that happening if he’s fit, so why would Wenger buy a new DM right now?….