Arsenal supporters have encouraged Mikel Arteta to hand Jakub Kiwior his first start in the Premier League against Manchester City. Pep Guardiola's side will welcome the Gunners to the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday evening as the Premier League title race intensifies.
The north Londoners head into the clash five points clear of the reigning champions, who have two crucial games in hand. A win for Arsenal will provide them with plenty of breathing room, while a victory for City will deliver a fatal blow to their rival's hopes of winning the competition.
Since Rob Holding has been tasked with shouldering the duties of William Saliba, Arsenal have struggled at the back and dropped potentially title-defining points. The Gunners have drawn each of their previous three games, surrendering a pair of two-goal leads against Liverpool and West Ham before going two-nil down inside a quarter of an hour against Southampton.
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The north Londoners have certainly rued the absence of Saliba and, with Holding proving to be a liability, supporters have told football.london that Arteta must replace the Englishman with Kiwior. The 23-year-old joined Arsenal from Spezia for around £21million to become the club's second signing of the January transfer window, following Leandro Trossard.
Kiwior has featured just twice for the Gunners in the Premier League thus far, enjoying brief cameos off the bench against Crystal Palace and Liverpool. Despite the Poland international's slight experience under Arteta, he's been seen as a far more reliable option than Holding.
Ahead of Arsenal's visit to the Etihad Stadium, Arteta addressed the mistakes which have crept into his side's performances amid the title race. The Spaniard said: "Human errors. Players make a lot of fantastic decisions, but they also make a lot of mistakes.
"The areas where they make mistakes probably define the extent and the consequences of those mistakes. Where we made those mistakes punished us heavily. Looking at the last two games back, taking them apart, we deserved to win both games without a question of a doubt.
"We have made some errors but we’ve won those games and then those errors get resolved," Arteta added. "But we’ve had some of them where we’ve managed to do that.
"Certainly, in certain areas you have to minimise the errors as much as possible because the margins become much smaller. I don’t think it’s about that (pressure). It’s decision-making, sometimes execution, sometimes the opponents as well who put you in certain positions to force those mistakes.
"We’ve done some in the past as well that I can remember especially at home where it’s cost us something and we’ve still managed to win the games."
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