Not injured: Mikel Arteta explains why he took David Luiz off | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta took David Luiz off at half-time against Molde FK as Arsenal beat the Norwegian side 3-0 to secure passage to the knock-out stages with 12 points from four games.

BT Sport reported that they believed it was because Luiz had suffered a head injury in the first half but when asked about it after the game, Mikel Arteta confirmed he had taken the defender off so he did not have to play the full 90 on an artificial pitch.

The Arsenal manager was also asked about Pepe who impressed fans, if not the journalist above, with his Man of the Match performance.

Arteta, however seemed much more sanguine about the whole thing. “We all know where his level is,” Arteta said.

“All the time the question is how often can he get to that level and contribute to other aspects of the game. Today is the example.”

In other words, we know what Pepe can do, the question is can he do it consistently?