If there’s one man who would’ve been more relieved than Mikel Arteta after last night’s win, it would be Dani Ceballos.
The Spaniard is enjoying his second season on loan with us and he has done fairly well. He has played 65 times for us in all competitions and not many Arsenal supporters would be against signing him on a permanent deal.
Every footballer has a bad day on the pitch and it was Ceballos’ turn last night. The Real Madrid man committed a needless foul just before half-time, and Benfica scored from that freekick.
He then made an absolute mess of what looked like a simple defensive header. That gifted a goal to Rafa Silva and that turned the game on its head.
Kieran Tierney and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goals helped us come back and win the game, and Ceballos couldn’t be happier. He vowed to learn from his errors and his skipper responded with a lovely message.
Arsenal Insider’s view:
Wins like these always increase the bond between teammates. The spirit within the squad will now be stronger than ever and the belief that we can now go on and win this competition will have increased massively.
If Arsenal had lost the game, Ceballos would have been slaughtered by fans, pundits and the media. That would’ve crushed his confidence, but Auba was there to save the day, and thank god for that.
Arsenal now have to get ready for a tough game against Leicester City on Sunday. Arteta might choose to rest a number of players that started today and that would be the best thing to do considering that the Europa League is our main target now.
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