Mikel Arteta has highlighted the mental and physical benefits of rotating his Arsenal squad after securing qualification from their Europa League group.
The likes of Matt Turner, Eddie Nketiah and Albert Sambi Lokonga came into the line-up for Thursday’s 1-0 win over PSV Eindhoven and the Gunners boss believes the Thursday night tournament is helping to keep morale high because more players feel valued.
“They are giving me the right reasons to do so, and it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t give them the opportunity to do that,” Arteta said when asked about the role of his reserves. “Especially the way they behaved, trained, and care about the team.
“So I’m really happy everybody is participating, everybody feels part of it, which is really important and everybody is competing and putting in the performances which are needed to win the games.”
One player who is yet to feature this season is Cedric Soares but Arteta stated his intention to fnally deploy the Portuguese full-back in the coming weeks.
He added: “The competition is one, the second one is because he was injured for a while and he had a recurring injury and now he’s fit.
“And he’s a player who deserves to play, I want to give him the minutes because he deserves that.”
