Nuno Tavares has spoken out after being substituted at half time during Arsenal's 3-0 defeat to Crystal Palace on Monday night. The Portuguese full back was thrown in to the starting lineup for the first time in nearly four months and endured a torrid time at Selhurst Park.
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."
