Arteta opens the door for Holding, has nothing to say about Ozil

Mikel Arteta has opened the door for Rob Holding after the 2-1 defeat to Sp*rs highlighted some of the shortcomings of defensive trio Shkodran Mustafi, David Luiz and Sead Kolasinac.


The latter gifted the ball to Son just moments after the Gunners had gone ahead through Alexandre Lacazette, leading to their equaliser. The Brazilian was once again indifferent in a game against testing opposition; while Mustafi rediscovered his inner Mustafi and Mustafied his way through the final stages of the game.


It led to a post-game question about Holding’s chances of playing, and Arteta sounded positive, suggesting he was trying to stick with players who had been part of a good unbeaten run.

“Sometimes it’s the position, sometimes it’s the momentum of the players, when we don’t concede in three or four games in a row everything is really positive,” he said.


“Obviously when you concede two goals like today …[people ask] why are we not playing someone else?

“Rob has done really well when we’ve demanded him to play and he will be ready to play when we demand him to do so I’m sure.”

It was another game in which Mesut Ozil was also not part of the squad, there’s no more mention of a back injury, if there ever was one, but the Arsenal boss was unwilling to go into any detail.

“He is still in the same positions he was last week or two weeks ago and we said we will manage everything internally,” said Arteta.

“I have nothing to say.”

We’ll wait and see if Holding is considered for our next game, the simple matter of champions Liverpool coming to the Emirates.