Former Arsenal player Paul Merson named the player he believes Mikel Arteta must keep if they are to maintain their electric Premier League form.
Last night Kieran Tierney’s sublime goal helped Arsenal to a 1-0 victory over FC Zurich and seal top spot in Group A of the Europa League.
The Scottish full-back speared a precise first-half strike into the bottom corner shortly after the quarter-hour mark.
The victory means Arsenal have now won all nine of their home games in all competitions this term, their longest such run since the 2009-10 season when they didn’t drop a home point in 11 outings.
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Match-winner Tierney, who signed for the north-Londoners for £25million in 2019 from Celtic, has been frustrated by a lack of minutes this season and has been linked with a January move away.
However former Gunners midfielder Merson insisted that Arteta must keep ahold of the Scotland international, even if he has slipped behind Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu in the pecking order.
Merson wrote in Sportskeeda: “Arsenal need a big squad and it does look like they’ll go deep into multiple competitions.
“They’re at the top of the Premier League table, and they’re doing well in the Europa League. Arsenal need to keep players like Kieran Tierney in their squad.”
Tierney, who produced a player-of-the-match performance against Zurich, could be in line for some more minutes against Chelsea on Sunday after Tomiyasu was forced off late with an injury.
Arteta had some warm words about Tierney after the game.
The Arsenal boss said “He was really good. Kieran is showing a lot of maturity. He has respected certain decisions we have taken.
“He has not played a lot of minutes and today he scored a great goal. That’s what we demand of the players: to be ready to make a difference.
“Everybody has to be ready and is important because we don’t have the biggest squad. They have been important in the league and the Europa League.”
Topics: Kieran Tierney, Arsenal, Mikel Arteta
Chris Byfield