I Benched Saka Against Nottingham Forest To Manage His Fitness – Arteta

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Bukayo Saka is dealing with a niggle. This comes after he left the England star on the bench for Saturday’s Premier League clash with Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.

According to him, he started Saka on the bench to manage his fitness, and he is grateful for his fantastic group of players who can step up to help the team when called upon.

Arteta added that his players tried to take more risks in the 2nd half, but it was not enough in the end.

His words, “We came here to win the game, that’s clear, and we needed the opportunities that we had. We haven’t managed that, so the word is disappointment. We haven’t conceded anything, any single shot again and generated four massive chances with Martinelli with an open goal, with Declan Rice, Merino and then Bukayo Saka’s header with an unbelievable save, and on top of that, a very clear penalty as well that has not been given.

So after that, it’s pretty difficult for us because it’s a team that is very well organised and very difficult to generate a lot of momentum throughout the game, so it’s disappointing. You need [to take chances], especially to open them up, especially the way that they played. We tried in many ways, we made changes, we tried to have more people in the last line, to have very creative players in and around the box. When you get into those moments, you have to make it happen if you want to win and we didn’t manage to get it done.

Bukayo had a lot of minutes and he had a niggle before the game so we need to manage our players. We have some fantastic players that can provide different things and we did try it from the beginning, we tried after half-time as well, taking more risks and bringing in even more players in those attacking options. We tried in every way and it wasn’t enough unfortunately.”

WOW.

Arsenal Football Club is an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London. Arsenal compete in the Premier League, the top flight of English football.

The club has won 13 league titles (including one unbeaten title), a record 14 FA Cups, two League Cups, 17 FA Community Shields, the Football League Centenary Trophy, one European Cup Winners’ Cup and one Inter-Cities Fairs Cup. In terms of trophies won, it is the third-most successful club in English football.

After conducting an overhaul in the club’s operating model to coincide with Wenger’s departure, Spaniard Unai Emery was named as the club’s new head coach on 23 May 2018. He became the club’s first ever ‘head coach’ and second manager from outside the United Kingdom.

In Emery’s first season, Arsenal finished fifth in the Premier League and as runner-up in the Europa League. On 29 November 2019, Emery was dismissed as manager and former player and assistant first team coach Freddie Ljungberg was appointed as interim head coach. On 20 December 2019, Arsenal appointed former club captain Mikel Arteta as the new head coach. Arsenal finished the league season in eighth, their lowest finish since 1994–95, but beat Chelsea 2–1 to earn a record-extending 14th FA Cup win. After the season. Arteta’s title was changed from head coach to manager.