Former Gunner claims Wenger may disagree with Arteta over two players | OneFootball

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