Mikel Arteta insists his conversation with Lisandro Martinez following Arsenal’s defeat against Manchester United last weekend had nothing to do with the defender’s reckless challenge on Bukayo Saka.
The Gunners suffered a 2-0 defeat in New York with defensive errors leading to goals scored by Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho.
While defeat was hard to stomach, Arsenal fans were left further incensed by the robust nature of Martinez’s performance which culminated in one particularly over zealous challenge on Saka.
Thankfully, the Arsenal winger emerged unscathed but Arteta was adamant that his post match discussion with Martinez was not related to anything that occurred during the game.
‘I was just happy to see him over there,’ revealed Arteta. ‘I know him personally. I was happy to see him back after the injury and that’s it, it is about the sport.
‘It’s about the people we know and we wished each other good luck for the season and that’s it. It was a really good competitive game for us.’
A lack of physicality, meanwhile, is an accusation Arsenal are likely to encounter this season given Arteta’s decision to replace Granit Xhaka with new signing Kai Havertz, who endured a difficult afternoon in Arsenal’s engine room against United.
Defending his decision ahead of tonight’s friendly against Barcelona, Arteta said: ‘We’re going to have to find the right balance as well, but a year ago Granit could never play that as an attacking midfielder. So let’s try to get the work done.
‘It’s the first time we played with four players inside, and three of them had never played for us. So three out of four, they never played together ever. So, tranquilo! Day-by-day, keep doing the right things, give people opportunity to settle them into the right things and we will be fine.
‘You use a word that is ‘physical’. So if I put Granit and Kai and I ask you who is more physical? What would you say? Kai is one metre 91, so it depends what you mean physical. Physical is (also) to run, running behind the forward, to tackle. It depends. So we will fit in with the qualities that we have, that’s for sure.
‘And the good thing is that we have options as well. When we have a game that is more physical, we can become very physical as well. We have the right options.’
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