Arsenal boss Arteta defends midfield trio against Man Utd as he rates Timber’s display
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has defended the performance of his new-look midfield after the Gunners lost 2-0 to Manchester United on Saturday night.
82,262 fans watched on as goals from Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho secured a friendly victory for the Red Devils over their Premier League rivals at the MetLife Stadium in New York.
Declan Rice was sitting at the base of the midfield for Arsenal with Martin Odegaard and fellow new signing Kai Havertz playing in front of the former West Ham man.
Rice, who signed for £105m earlier this summer, Havertz and Odegaard struggled to take control of midfield against Man Utd but Arteta reckons it’s only a matter of time before it clicks.
When asked what he thought of the performance from his Arsenal midfield trio, Arteta said: “That when they play 55 times together they will be better.
“It will flow better, they will understand each other better and will be more dominant and better. But it takes time to glide and we have to respect that.
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“But I saw a lot of positive things, and things I like much more than the game we won the other day against the MLS even though the result is very different.”
Jurrien Timber, who made the move from Ajax this summer, spent much of the match drifting into midfield from his right-back position and Arteta was happy with the Dutchman’s display.
“With Jurrien, we are really pleased with his performance and the things we asked him to do,” Arteta added.
“Obviously he is adapting really quickly to the team, and you could see the confidence, the determination that he plays with.”
On his thoughts on the match in general, Arteta continued: “Having a tough match of this level in this context gives you a lot of information, and that’s always very positive. That information is obviously there are a lot of things we have to improve.
“How important the boxes are, that errors are part of football, you have to overcome them as well. And how painful it is to lose a game. Physically it’s been super, super demanding.
“Some players we want to expose a little bit more than they have done, because the way we want to build them, their physical state. Overall they had their moments when they were so efficient. We had ours, when we had more dominance and we certainly tried again in the second half, but the chances we had, we didn’t convert them, and they won the game.”
