Mikel Arteta has revealed that he has held talks with Nuno Tavares after taking him off at half time during Monday night's 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace in the Premier League. The 22-year-old was weak when challenging for the ball from a free-kick which allowed Joachim Andersen to set up Jean-Philippe Mateta's opener on the night and was then caught flat-footed as he failed to anticipate Gabriel's mistake in the build-up to Jordan Ayew's second and was hooked in favour of Gabriel Martinelli at the break.
"Today it was just a tactical reason," said Mikel Arteta of the decision in his post-match press conference on Monday. "How I wanted to do it with what Palace were doing there and how we could attack and control the game much better in that position, put another attacking midfielder with Emile in that position. I’m sorry that it was Nuno again but we had to do it."
This is not the first time Tavares has been taken off early after he was subbed just 35 minutes into his last start for the Gunners during their 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup third round. He took to social media on Thursday afternoon to reveal his reaction to being hauled off at Selhurst Park.
