Arsenal battled to a 1-1 draw at PSV Eindhoven in their final Champions League group game, knowing that their place as group winners was already confirmed.
There were calls for Mikel Arteta to rotate for the tie, and he did start the likes of Cedric Soares, Mohamed Elneny and Aaron Ramsdale, whilst Bukayo Saka did not appear at all.
Arsenal took the lead through Eddie Nketiah, before they were pegged back in the second half and they failed to find the winner.
Whilst there was nothing too be overly concerned about in terms of the performance, Arteta did cause some frustration among fans as he did not give a single minute of football to any of the promising academy prospects on the bench.
Mikel Arteta slammed for Arsenal substitutions
There was a lot of surprise amongst the Arsenal fanbase when first-team regulars Declan Rice, Ben White and Martin Odegaard appeared as substitutes early on in the second half.
In the case of White and Rice in particular, there are few available replacements within the squad, given injuries to Takehiro Tomiyasu and Thomas Partey, but they were nevertheless risked on the night, despite the lack of jeopardy within the game.
Journalist Charles Watts took to X to express his confusion at the decision from Arteta to use such important players when it was perhaps unnecessary.
“I will never understand those subs. It just feels like such an unnecessary risk,” he posted.
Why did Arteta use his key players vs PSV?
White replaced Cedric Soares, who put in a fairly solid performance on what was a rare start, and the full-back could have arguably continued on longer, or even been replaced by a youth option in Reuell Walters.
Rice came on in an unusual role, as he replaced William Saliba as a central defender for his appearance. The Englishman has not played in that role for years, but Arteta may have been testing him out as potential emergency cover given the injuries at the back.
Odegaard came on a lot earlier than Emile Smith Rowe, who was returning from injury did. Mohamed Elneny went down injured and needed replacing on what was his first start of the season.
Whilst the fans did want to see some of the youth players, Arteta could arguably justify each of his first three substitutes with the game at 1-1.
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