Arsenal fans are left surprised but are praising Mikel Arteta for playing the fringe players against Crystal Palace. Many believe that the decision is to give the main players some rest ahead of the PSG clash in the UEFA Champions League final.
Arteta has gone with Kepa in goal, with David Raya not even on the bench. Christian Norgard starts at right-back and Riccardo Calafiori at left-back, with Piero Hincapie and Cristhian Mosquera in the middle of the backline.
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Martin Zubimendi keeps his place in the pivot, with Myles Lewis-Skelly as his partner. Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli are the wingers, as Max Dowman starts in the middle of the attack.
Gabriel Jesus leads the attack for the Premier League champions. The Arsenal fans are delighted with the team and posted:
Arteta spoke about winning the Premier League title in his pre-match presser and said:
“I think you have to, in our job, respect every opinion. I think the difficulty is to place those opinions in the place that they belong. Because some of them can be extremely useful, and they can help you to be better, to see or to appreciate something differently, or to open your eyes to something that maybe you don’t have the capacity to look at.”
“But others can be just damaging, and the only purpose is towards that. I think they have to be really far from you. Otherwise, it’s going to affect you in a way that obviously you cannot transmit it to the team. And that cannot happen as a manager.”
Arsenal are the Premier League champions for the first time in 22 years.
Mikel Arteta on his key meeting with Arsenal players in the Premier League season
Mikel Arteta recalled a meeting by a tree during the Premier League season and highlighted it as a key reason for their success. He claimed that the players understood their role and said:
“One of the main ones was a meeting that we had here next to the tree, when I brought all the players together, and I told them: ‘Look at each other, look at the squad that we built over the summer, we are capable of everything and we can be very, very good. But it only depends on us and our behaviours and everybody understanding the role that it’s going to have daily or on the day to give the best for the team.'”
Arsenal face PSG in the final of the UEFA Champions League next weekend.
Edited by Sripad