Kieran Tierney landed a late run out in Arsenal's win over Everton as he continues to find EPL minutes tough to come by.
The Celtic hero was brought on for the final eight minutes as Mikel Arteta and his troops opened up a five point gap over Manchester City at the top of the English Premier League table with a thumping 4-0 win over Everton. The Scotland star had only tasted ONE minute of action in the previous six outings prior to his late show at the Emirates.
We told yesterday how the Gunners are reported to have placed a £25million price tag on his head as they bid to recoup the transfer fee they shelled out in 2019 to land the left-back from Parkhead. Newcastle United are one of the clubs said to be keen on landing the defender - who will likely be considering his options as he continues to struggle for game-time.
When quizzed early this week over a lack of game time for Tierney and a potential transfer exit, Arteta said: “I don’t know, I’m not thinking about it, I’m thinking about what’s best for the team and obviously and the players with the right to play minutes which they all deserve and we’re going to try to do that in the next couple of games.”
Former Manchester City man Oleksandr Zinchenko has been keeping Tierney out of the team and he once again came in for big praise from former Rangers midfielder and boss Arteta after the big win over the Toffees. He said: "That’s why we brought him here, because he brings something different to the team. His mentality and his quality to do certain things allows us to be unpredictable and to generate a lot of threat every time we are in ball possession. He’s played those kind of games against low blocks 200 times and that’s very helpful."
On his involvement in the first goal, he added: "You have to produce those magic moments and as you said, take that initiative and have the mentality that 'I’m going to do it on the pitch - I’m not going to wait for somebody else to do it.' When you have a few players with the willingness and capacity to do that, you have a better chance to win more games."
Tierney has picked up most of his minutes in the Europa League and domestic cup competitions and with two matches against Sporting Lisbon this month ahead of Scotland's Euro qualifiers with Cyprus and Spain he will be hoping for much-needed minutes to impress and keep his sharpness ticking ahead of Steve Clarke's squad being named.
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