Mikel Arteta Names Big Arsenal Positive from Pre-season Tour of USA After Defeat to Liverpool
Mikel Arteta is confident that Arsenal’s young players have demonstrated their readiness to compete for first-team positions based on their performances during the club’s US tour.
Arsenal wrapped up their US tour with a 2-1 loss to Liverpool in Philadelphia. This defeat followed a victory over Manchester United and a draw with Bournemouth.
Arteta included 12 academy players on the tour due to the delay in the return of senior players caused by this summer’s Copa America and Euros.
Ethan Nwaneri was among the players who benefited from the tour, starting two of Arsenal’s three matches in the US and making an appearance for the final 20 minutes against Liverpool.
Seventeen-year-old Ayden Heaven also started in two games, while Myles Lewis-Skelly impressed with his performance at left-back.
“I’m really pleased with all of them,” said Arteta. “Unfortunately I wanted to give opportunities to all of them, [but] we didn’t have enough time to do so.
“But especially the ones that played, I think they performed and responded incredibly well.
“So that’s something that we take from the tour as well, that we have a lot of talent there that we want to use and they showed that they are very much pushing to earn the right to play with us.”
Arteta fielded a robust lineup for their match against Liverpool overnight, yet the new acquisition Riccardo Calafiori did not make the squad.
The defender, who signed with Arsenal from Bologna for £42 million on Monday, was excluded from the match due to having only completed one full training session with his new teammates.
“We had to manage him,” said Arteta. “He had a very busy 48 hours before his flight.
“Then it was the jet-lag and he hasn’t trained with the team yet. We want to build him slowly, to get to know him first. We will have plenty of time to see him.”
In other Arsenal news, How Arsenal Can Unlock £45million Player – Serie A Star Signed and Kai Havertz Axed
