Mikel Arteta surprised many by naming Eberechi Eze in his starting XI for Arsenal\u2019s trip to Newcastle United while William Saliba was left on the bench.<\/p>\n
Arteta has most often deployed a combative midfield of Declan Rice, Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Merino this season. That bulky trident was first used against Liverpool last month when Arsenal mustered just one shot on target in their first defeat of the campaign. The same midfield offered little combined threat in a win over Athletic Club that was settled by two late substitutes, and it again featured for a sterile opening 45 minutes against Manchester City last weekend.<\/p>\n
Arteta defended his side\u2019s approach in a scratchy 1\u20131 draw with Pep Guardiola\u2019s side despite scarcely troubling City until stoppage time. Merino was hooked at halftime in that fixture for Eze, who created Gabriel Martinelli\u2019s late equaliser with a deft clipped pass over the top. The summer recruit from Crystal Palace has only made one Premier League start for Arsenal so far, operating out wide on the left against Nottingham Forest. He will get his first run through the middle at St James\u2019 Park with Leandro Trossard and Bukayo Saka flanking centre forward Viktor Gy\u00f6keres.<\/p>\n
Cristhian Mosquera has also earned the manager\u2019s trust. The 21-year-old summer signing from Valencia was brought into the side earlier than many expected after an early-season injury to Saliba. Saliba is fit again but dropped to the bench on Sunday after playing the full 90 minutes of the midweek Carabao Cup victory over Port Vale. There are still lingering concerns about the ankle Saliba damaged less than a month ago. \u201cWe have to manage the squad,\u201d the Spanish boss warned.<\/p>\n
Arteta stressed the importance of the occasion and the physical test ahead. \u201cThese stadiums and these moments make your team. Those challenges make a better team. It\u2019s going to be physical.\u201d Captain Martin \u00d8degaard, who is himself recovering from a shoulder injury, is \u201cdesperate to get on the pitch\u201d after training over the last two days but was named among the substitutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta starts Eberechi Eze centrally; William Saliba dropped to the bench for the trip to Newcastle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3170,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,194,969],"tags":[947,826,199],"class_list":["post-3171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-newcastle-united","category-premier-league","tag-ankle-injury","tag-bukayo-saka","tag-cristhian-mosquera"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}