Arteta explains heavy Arsenal rotation for Leicester City

Arsenal rotate heavily

Arsenal vs Leicester on the Sunday early kick off has seen The Gunners’ line-up is significantly changed in comparison to their 3-2 victory in Greece against Benfica.

Arteta has chosen to make a total of 6 changes bringing in Cedric, Pablo Mari, Mohamed Elneny, Nicolas Pepe, Willian and Alexandre Lacazette.

The notable absentees and bench sitters are Pierre Emerick Aubameyang, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Magalhaes, Martin Odegaard and Thomas Partey.

🚨 Six changes from Thursday

⛔️ Cedric and Pablo come in
🤝 Mo partners Granit
⚡️ Nico and Willian start
🎺 Laca captains the side#LEIARS

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 28, 2021

The latter did not start the match against Benfica but has recently returned from another significant injury whereby Arteta has looked to protect the Ghanaian international where possible and bring him back into the squad gradually.

Interestingly though, Gabriel Martinelli is still unable to make the first team line-up from the off. The Spanish coach instead preferring to choose Nicolas pepe and Willian.

The Brazilian and former Chelsea man came on against Benfica and setup Kieran Tierney’s equaliser which brought about praise from Arteta after the game.

“Hopefully Thursday’s performance is going to give him the platform and belief that he is a really important player – he is a player I really like and I did a lot to bring him in and hopefully he can still give us more,” he said.

Arteta explains decisions

Arteta has revealed that a number of fitness issues in the recovery process from Benfica has enforced many of the changes in his decision-making for Leicester’s game.

“We have had some problems in the last 48 hours to recover players. Players with some muscular issues. We got here on Friday evening and we had to freshen up ands the reality is that there are other players as well who are fighting for chances and they deserve the chance to play,” he said.

Plenty to discuss ahead of kick-off…

🔁 This afternoon’s changes
🔴 Our @PremierLeague form
🦊 @LCFC‘s attacking threat

🎙 @m8arteta | #LEIARS pic.twitter.com/zNVSANMLjo

— Arsenal (@Arsenal) February 28, 2021

The last time Arsenal played Leicester was at the Emirates where the Foxes came away with a 1-0 victory after Arteta and his side had dominated the game for much of the match.

Arteta  mentioned that his side had set up to deal with both possible scenarios of a dominant Leicester performance or a more conservative defensive display. Much will be expected regardless of heavy change in the team.

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Source: 101greatgoals.com