Paul Robinson was shocked by an element of Mikel Arteta’s management for Arsenal against Athletic Club on Tuesday night.
Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners in Bilbao thanks to late strikes from Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, both of whom came off the bench.
Ernesto Valverde’s side made it difficult for the Gunners throughout the 90 minutes, but Arteta’s team still found a way to secure all three points and the Spaniard will subsequently be delighted.
The North Londoners host Manchester City at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon, in what will be a crucial clash which could have a significant impact on the Premier League title race.
Paul Robinson was surprised with Mikel Arteta’s team selection
Andrea Berta spent over £250 million on eight players over the summer to provide Arteta with a deep squad.
However, the Spaniard hasn’t yet shown a willingness to fully utilise this squad and make wholesale changes between matches.
With Sunday’s encounter with City to come, Arsenal perhaps ought to have made a handful of changes to their starting eleven away at Athletic Club.
However, Arteta merely brought Declan Rice back in for the injured Martin Odegaard, with the team that walked out at Estadio de San Mames otherwise the same as the one that played against Nottingham Forest.
Speaking on the Football Daily podcast from Bilbao, Robinson said that he was ‘surprised’ by Arteta going ‘full tilt’.
“I’ll be honest, I was surprised when I saw his team selection before this game with that in mind,” the former Tottenham player said.
“Mikel Arteta has shown tonight that he is literally taking one game at a time, because if he’s looking towards Sunday as a huge pivotal game, I’m not so sure that starting 11 would be exactly the same.
“I expected there to be one or two tweaks in that tonight. He went full tilt.”
Mikel Arteta needs to trust his large squad more
This was Athletic Club’s first game back in the Champions League since 2014 and the home crowd were certainly up for it.
Away in an intimidating European atmosphere, it’s certainly reasonable that Arteta opted for a strong starting eleven.
However, the Gunners have assembled a super squad for a reason. The idea is that players regularly rotate in and out of the side so that they don’t suffer from fatigue.
The tactician could easily have brought in the likes of William Saliba, Piero Hincapie, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, and few would have batted an eyelid.
Arsenal have the players to make several changes and still come away with three points in such a difficult game.
Arteta tends to stick with the same starting eleven if they perform well in the previous game, but he must learn to rotate from time to time moving forward.
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