Fond farewells?
Mikel Arteta admitted earlier in the season that the uncertainty over the futures of several members of his squad was going to leave ‘a cloud’ over Arsenal until the very end of the season. As that time came on Sunday it appears the first moves may have been made to ensure it parts.
Speaking after the game in his post-match press conference, the Spaniard revealed that decisions had been taken on the future of all three of the Gunners’ out of contract players. “I will speak to the three players now or tomorrow and after that we need to start to move but we have clear ideas of what we want to do,” he said in his post-match press conference.
When pressed on the timing of the incident Arteta revealed that he had delayed to try to ensure squad harmony through to the business end of the season. “It’s been decided but it’s very difficult to communicate it,” the Spaniard continued. “What they deserve is to have a bit of what they had today. To do it earlier, one way or the other, with three situations like that is very, very awkward and it could effect the team so as a club we have to do the right thing in the right moment and sometimes combining those two is not easy at all.”
It may seem strange to think given how the season ended, but there was a point of this season where Alexandre Lacazette ‘s future was a weekly topic of questioning in post and pre-game press conferences for Arteta. The Frenchman has fallen out of favour as his poor record in front of goal finally caught up with him.
As he was introduced for the final half an hour at the Emirates on Sunday he appeared determined to add to his tally of just four this season in the Premier League, even running in behind on one occasion seemingly discovering how to break the Groundhog Day curse of exclusively coming short to link the play.
Eddie Nketiah meanwhile has been offered an extension on a few occasions now and proved why with a man of the match display. As well as grabbing his typical poacher’s finish from Gabriel Martinelli ‘s flick on, the 22-year-old was able to come short to link play and also caused Everton’s backline a few problems with his physicality.
After the game Arteta doubled down on his desire to keep the Hale Ender. “When you see Eddie training the way he trains, he doesn’t even need to play, you know you have a player there who is going to help you,” the Spaniard said. “He’s done that – look at his numbers with the amount of games he’s played. It’s terrific.” Nketiah has insisted that he is keen on getting regular game time though, and with Arsenal in the market for a striker this summer, it remains to be seen how possible that will be.
