Mikel Arteta praised Sead Kolasinac for his willingness to play against Manchester United even though the full-back was not fully fit following a spell on the sidelines with a hamstring problem.
The 26-year-old wasn’t expected to return to action for another couple of weeks but told the Spaniard yesterday that he felt he could play a role.
A surprise starter, he went on to put in an impressive shift, recording an assist and making it to the 69 minute-mark before being replaced by Bukayo Saka.
“I said to him, ‘thank you so much’ because today we had Bukayo who wasn’t feeling good,” Arteta told the BBC after the 2-0 win.
“He wasn’t ready to play, Kola. He was expecting to start maybe against Leeds or after Leeds and he made an incredible effort.
“He came to me yesterday and said, ‘boss, if you want me to play, I can play’. We decided to play him and that’s the attitude of the players that I want and he got rewarded.
“He made an effort, he put himself on the line and he had a great performance.”
After decent performances against Bournemouth and Chelsea but no wins, Arteta was relieved to get three points at the third time of asking. He firmly believes the players are keen on the changes he’s trying to implement, as evidenced by their efforts on the pitch.
“I think they’re buying into it, they’re enjoying it, to do it together much better,” he said.
“As well I saw, bits that give me a lot of encouragement in terms of what we’re doing with the ball and defensively in the moments we have to suffer together…how compact we were, how ruthless we were.”
He added: “Physically at the moment, they are not used to maintaining that intensity. The games are a little too long. We don’t have much time to train with the games, but I’m convincing them it’s the right way to do it. We’ll be able to do it soon for longer periods of the game.”
Top lad. Emery actually convinced us that he’s not a good player
Or his form, like most of our other players, just dipped towards the end of Emery’s spell. Kola, like most of our other players, had moments during the earlier periods of Emery’s time where he looked unstoppable.
That all the players’ form dipping at the end of Unai’s reign shows Unai got it wrong and the got tired of him
Unai got it wrong. He never got it right
The initial success was what you get when battons are changed from a top coach to an average one
The best performances under Emery were when he couldn’t speak English. The more he was understood the worse we got. I’m sure he’s a decent bloke but at Arsenal he was out of his depth. Arteta is a leader, it’s going to be fun seeing where he leads us.
IMO he was actually one of the few players to do ok under Emery this season alongside Auba and Leno. Gets too much stick really.
I agree, but I do think that Emery also made him into a one-dimensional player.
When he arrived he was more dangerous because he did more than just run the line and rip a cross. He would sometimes go direct and cause all manner of trouble for their defense.
Defensively he was more, um, direct as well.
Kolasinac, thank you again for giving your all even though not fully fit. This is the mentality we need.
He always has played like this. And yes, he is “ good enough “ to play at Arsenal, especially an Arsenal fighting for trophies.
Always a good outlet. Just that we were relying on him too much for the past 1 year as we have no one who plays on the wing.
And we need players with this attitude, to hype the team up, to kick players on the pitch.
Monreal ????
Kola isn’t a winger he’s a full back/ wing back that can’t defend.
Going forward he’s good but definitely he’s terrible, if he can work on he’s main role which is defending then he will be a good player.
He’s a decent player, he was in the German league team of the year when he came to us.
He is a better defender than Trent Alexander-Arnold (yes, I mean it), who is being described (at least in England) as “the best right back in the world.” Yes, I know they play opposite sides, but that is irrelevant to my point. I am also not claiming that he is as good a player–only that the imbalance between his attacking and defensive ability is pretty common in fullbacks now and that his defensive weaknesses are no worse than many.
No one is forgetting him, do you see him overlapping as much last season? He cuts in more often or puts in the early cross, kinda lost a little pace to overlap.
I thought he was injured lol
kolasinac gives us so much going forward and has a great drive commitment and determination
hes an important part of this team and can be a terrific player for us.
good to see the arteta effect is beginning to work already, I’ve got a lot of hope for us moving forward with him this season.
dare i say top four might be a possibility!
Yes, and he’s protecting Ozil very well 🙂
Always thought he would be terrific if someone cover his arse when driving forwards .. kind of high impact fullback with skills and ability to cross, cut backs or driving into the box.
Consecutive home games now where the team hasn’t been booed off the pitch. Sure. we didn’t get the bounce in MA’s first two games, but the effects are definitely noticeable now and I think come the start of next season we will all realise what a great appointment he is and how the board actually got something right. For a change.
?
Appointing him is only half the job. Backing him in the transfer market is the other half!
Just a wee bit better on the crossing Kola. Most penetrative player.
I think our full backs should improve on their final delivery of crosses. Other than Tierney the quality isn’t good.
I’d also like them to do some feints once in a while and have a pop at goal so that we aren’t predictable.
yap, Tierney has a great cross but he can’t really defend. He didn’t play much but for what he played it was obvious that he still needs to develop his physics and his defending. Kola is not world greatest defender by any account but he is still miles ahead of Tierney. I am not at all convinced that Tierney was worth 30 mil. that we payed for him.
Physics, Geography but remember History.
Tierney hasn’t played under Arteta so hasn’t had the opportunity to learn what the likes of Kola and others have.
Writing the lad off as poor is just so wrong: his defending will improve just as Luiz and Socrates and AMN have done, his physique will follow when fit.
Do you ever see Tierney play for Celtic?
He’s an outstanding young full/ wing back who also performed well in the champions league and in today’s market I think will be well worth the £25 million we spent on him.
You’ve probably only see him play for arsenal were he’s still recovering from being out for near 8 months through different injuries so he is very rusty.
Do you ever see Tierney play for Celtic?
He’s an outstanding young full/ wing back who also performed well in the champions league and in today’s market I think will be well worth the £25 million we spent on him.
You’ve probably only see him play for arsenal were he’s still recovering from being out for near 8 months through different injuries so he is very rusty.
No Tierney is a good player, he came into a team low in confidence with a terrible manager that had already lost the dressing room. Give the lad a chance, the only players this year that have any positivity is auba, saka, Leno and martinelli
you’re getting some stick and thumbs down but i too am quite worried by tierney’s performances so far. the pl is a BIG step up from Celtic and for me the jury is out.
His crossing – and his fighting attitude – are very, very good but the rest is not, yet. Hopefully MA’s aggressive coaching and getting over his injuries will deliver the tiernay we all want to see
This Arsenal that has gone so complacent and self-indulgent simply needs the types like Xhaka and Kolašinac to get back where it should be. They are far from being top players in positions they play but they are fighters and wont go hiding at the first sign of trouble. That willingness to fight and try when things are not going well has brought them into spotlight because they made mistakes but they didn’t go hiding. The reason why Xhaka wants to go are not the fans but the Club’s hierarchy that seemed to favor the ‘playing it safe, not making… Read more »
You got the xhaka character part right, that’s the only part I’ll miss about him cos I still want him to go, he’s got a big mouth and can face any sort of adversary, but he isn’t good enough sadly. Our youth academy is getting something wrong in developing our players physically, hence they don’t have the energy for the epl…..Hayden left and got stronger and fitter and more aggressive, I think Glen kamara is doing the same thing………why do we produce technically good players but weaklings……compare rashford to Nelson or willock, or even greenwood to saka, they need to… Read more »
Who is schad?
Said Paul…the one with a big mouth. Paul, the positive effects of Xhaka going through all he has been through and coming back, being willing to put it all on the line for Arsenal…THAT is what builds a team into a team. We should all take a deep breath, sit back, have some faith. Let’s all revel in the journey of an aspirational young manager given the opportunity to manage a group of amazing character and talent. Let’s do our job in the process enjoy, support and pick them up when they stumble. PS I also sometimes have a big… Read more »
Big mouth, metoo.
Is that you, Unai?? Frimpong looked like he could bench press a tractor when he came out of the academy – where is he now? Ronaldo weighed about 100 lbs when he first exploded at MU. Your point couldn’t be more misguided. Tackling, for those who do it well, is just as much about technique as scoring goals is.
Xhaka is purely doen to the terrible insults he’s getting from so called arsenal supporters.
If your wife and newly born baby had death threats made towards them would you want to stay at the club?
No wonder he told the idiots to Fu## off, id say a hell of a lot more.
Disgusting behaviour!!!
So we’re all now condoning Xhaka’s behavior because he had a few good games and we finally won? I still think what Xhaka did was wrong. Giving death threats etc is never admissible, but that had very little to do with the booing inside the stadium. Xhaka is wrong to conflate that with the fans in the stadium who are actually desperate to support the team. Let’s not be revisionist idiots. If Xhaka keeps performing and giving his best, I’m happy for him to be in the team as we need him now. He’s far from my favorite player, but… Read more »
I agree characters like Xhaka and Kolasinac with their clear determination are good for the club. But the Xhaka wanting to leave (or not?) is 100% down to the fans. Sure, the ship had rotten planks, but it was the fans kicking him when he was down that told him he wasn’t appreciated. It’s the voice of the baying mobile vulgus. Long on passion, short on wisdom and reason. If he now improves to become the player Arteta seems to see in him and then leaves anyway, or leaves and becomes that player under other leadership, it would be just… Read more »
MOTM for me. Made a massive impact. usual mad voices who prefer to will themselves into believing there is some sort of non existent Tierney masterclass this season or that Saka is better. Taking nothing away from either player (particularly young Saka playing out of position for us…great run from deep yesterday), the Bosnian tank bossed it for us. he bullied their entire right side off the field (before of course proverbially going off himself to worrying ankle issue…we should have maybe taking him off earlier) BUT the made the difference giving us authority and impact on the left. When… Read more »