One thing that journalist Charles Watts saw from Arsenal against Newcastle United convinced him that Mikel Arteta made a huge mistake earlier in the week.
Jorginho came back into the Arsenal starting XI as the Gunners bounced back from their Porto defeat with a 4-1 thrashing of Newcastle United at the Emirates Stadium.
The 32-year-old midfielder was a controlling presence in the middle of the park for the Gunners. Jorginho brought all of his composure and experience to the table as he dictated the pace of the game on Saturday evening. He impressed with his progressive passing and ability to protect his team’s defensive line from potential counter-attacks.
Many Arsenal fans were wowed by Jorginho’s performance against the visitors from Tyneside. After the match, Mikel Arteta also made his stance on the midfielder plain. The Spanish coach insisted that Jorginho ought to be considered a world-class player.
Plenty of Chelsea fans even now think it was a mistake for them to let Jorginho join Arsenal in the first place.
Charles Watts calls out Mikel Arteta mistake after Jorginho masterclass v Newcastle
Given his age, the Gunners cannot rely upon the Brazil-born ace to start every game week in, week out, across all competitions. Arteta has to manage his minutes smartly.
It will have been partially due to this that Jorginho was named amongst the substitutes when Arsenal took on Porto in the first-leg of their Champions League round of 16 clash on Wednesday evening.
For all of their free-flowing brilliance against Newcastle, Arsenal were equally as stifled and sloppy against the Portuguese side. Whilst they will have been extremely frustrated to have conceded a late goal at the Estadio do Dragao that condemned them to a 1-0 defeat, the Gunners can’t really have too many complaints about finding themselves on the losing side that night.
Charles Watts, though, feels that things may well have been very different had Jorginho been included in the starting XI in Portugal. Speaking on his Inside Arsenal YouTube platform in the wake of the win over Newcastle, the reporter said, “I thought Jorginho was absolutely exceptional… You won’t see a better midfield performance than you saw from Jorginho in that first half. He just controlled it.”
“As I was watching it, all I was thinking was ‘why didn’t you play against Porto on Wednesday night? Why didn’t you start that game?’ I thought it was baffling at the time that he didn’t start against Porto, and I certainly do now having seen this performance. He was so good, pulling the strings.”
It will be fascinating to see if Jorginho is more involved in the second leg of this continental match-up, which is due to take place at the Emirates Stadium on March 12th.
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