Mikel Arteta is adamant he wants to blood young talent at Arsenal — and Tuesday night is the perfect opportunity for him to do so.
The Gunners are already through to the Champions League knockout stage as group winners, so their game against PSV Eindhoven is a dead rubber, as the Dutch club have also qualified as runners-up.
It provides Arsenal with some welcome respite ahead of the busy festive period, with Sunday’s home game against Brighton the first of four Premier League games in 15 days.
Arteta is expected to rotate his team on Tuesday night, and academy prospects Ethan Nwaneri, Lino Sosua and Reuell Walters have all travelled with the squad.
Sousa and Walters hope to make their debuts, while Nwaneri could become the youngest Arsenal player to play in Europe. Nwaneri is already the youngest player in Premier League history after making his Arsenal debut last year aged 15 years and 181 days.
“Something unique that he’s got that I really liked from the beginning is his ability to take the ball in tight areas, to escape a little bit like Jack Wilshere used to do,” said Arteta. “He’s got that thing between his teeth as well that he wants to show every single day how good he is and impress people.”
During the early days of his Gunners tenure, blooding young players was a key part of Arteta’s success. Academy graduates Bukayo Saka and Emile Smith Rowe were the driving force behind the club’s resurgence, but the production line has slowed since then.
Arteta has handed a total of seven players from the academy their debuts, totalling only 16 appearances in all competitions.
“It is early days but we need to get the machine going because we want more of those and we have to produce more of those,” said Arteta. “And there is a lot of work that is going through the academy, and that is big credit to all of them, every single day the amount of work they put in. They do a lot, they’ve planted the seeds and now we need to bring them up.”
The challenge for Arteta is that Arsenal’s rise makes it harder to blood young players.
Saka and Smith Rowe both burst onto the scene when the side were languishing in mid-table, but they are now fighting for the title and competing in the Champions League.
“You have to build space in the squad as well to give that talent an opportunity,” said Arteta. “We should not forget that, because it’s a big part of what we want to do in the future.”
Arteta will not get a better chance than tonight to be true to his word, but he has still taken a strong squad to Holland.
Part of that move is down to fitness issues, with Gabriel Martinelli falling ill on Monday and not travelling to leave Arsenal short of five first-team players. Saka has travelled despite not training yesterday due to a knock as Arteta wanted everyone in Eindhoven to maintain squad unity.
PSV are already through in second place and boss Peter Bosz has said he will make changes. The Dutch side’s only loss this season was to Arsenal in September, when the Gunners ran out 4-0 winners at Emirates Stadium.
They also boast an incredible 100 per cent Eredivisie record this season after winning all 15 of their games.
