Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has revealed that one of his players deserved more playing time following the Gunners’ Europa League draw with Sporting Lisbon last night.
Mikel Arteta insists Fabio Vieira is a dangerous player for the team. Liverpool ‘deserves more game time’ for Arsenal after he impressed in last night’s 2-2 Europa League draw with Sporting Lisbon in the last 16 first leg. Before going to the second leg at the Emirates Stadium next week, this UFABET game William Saliba helped the Premier League crowd take the lead in the 22nd minute, but hesitation Matt Turner and Jakub Kivijor gave Gonchalo Inacio an equalizer for Sporting.
The home side took some lead after 10 minutes of the second half through Paulinho. But an own goal from Sporting’s Hidemasa Morita saved Arsenal from defeat, with Vieira, who joined the Gunners from Porto last summer. He made his 12th start of the season at the Estadio Jose Alvalade and Arteta was impressed by his performances. The Spanish coach described Vieira as a He was named Arsenal’s ‘most dangerous player’ tonight and says the 22-year-old deserves more opportunities in the latter part of the season.
“I’m really happy for him,” said Arteta. “I think he deserves more opportunities than he has. Especially in the last two months Obviously. He had a difficult start because he was injured two months after the surgery. And still not at the level we want. But tonight you saw that he’s probably our most dangerous player. He always makes things happen, he is a player that I absolutely love.
Arteta also praised Kivijor who made his first appearance for Arsenal since arriving in north London in January from Spezia. The club in the Serie A arena, “I think he did well. This was his first time playing. So it was a different pairing,” said Arteta. “When you make six changes to the team, it loses connection. And you could feel it especially early in the first half. “After that I think the team got better and better. Overall I think he played a good game.”
Arteta assessed Arsenal’s performance overall as saying: “We had moments in the game where we had a lot of control over the game. But we lacked a bit of strength in the third region. (The last area in front of the goal) because obviously today we have to adapt to players we rarely use ′′ I think we lost two very bad goals. So we have to do better and show our determination to defend the penalty area in that moment. It puts this round in a really difficult situation. But we can respond. We had moments in the second half where we were much better.