{"id":8288,"date":"2025-09-21T22:44:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:44:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/21\/mikel-arteta-defended-arsenals-midfield-selection-against-manchester-city-saying-he-believed-it-was-the-best-for-the-team\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T22:44:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T22:44:17","slug":"mikel-arteta-defended-arsenals-midfield-selection-against-manchester-city-saying-he-believed-it-was-the-best-for-the-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/21\/mikel-arteta-defended-arsenals-midfield-selection-against-manchester-city-saying-he-believed-it-was-the-best-for-the-team\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta defended Arsenal&#8217;s midfield selection against Manchester City, saying he believed it was &#8220;the best for the team.&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body\">\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta answered questions about the midfield selection in a 1-1 draw with Manchester City, saying, &#8220;No one asked me about Bilbao&#8217;s midfield three.&#8221;<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>As a result, Arsenal finished second with 10 points in the Premier League table, with Liverpool, five points behind the leader, and Manchester City, with seven points.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>He said: &#8220;No one asked me about Bilbao&#8217;s midfield 3. There&#8217;s no one. I think that&#8217;s the best thing for the team, so it&#8217;s the same midfield.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Some critics suggested that Arsenal played too modestly in the first half against Man City given his recent form, and Arteta admitted he was disappointed that he would leave in just a draw.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m very proud of the players and the team. Overall, I&#8217;m very disappointed with the outcome.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"organism-media-card\" class=\"relative block w-full text-left\">\n<div class=\"w-full\" role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\">\n<div class=\"relative overflow-hidden h-full w-full\" data-testid=\"molecule-card-illustration\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-card-picture\" class=\"wrapper-16-9 relative\">\n<figure class=\"card-hover-zoom absolute h-full w-full\">\n<div class=\"h-full w-full object-cover\" data-testid=\"blurry-image-wrapper\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-transparent h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/imgresizer.tntsports.io\/unsafe\/1200x0\/filters:format(jpeg)\/origin-imgresizer.tntsports.io\/2025\/09\/21\/image-bfa2d73e-cdc0-440d-a289-3258f3eed4a8-85-2560-1440.jpeg\" alt=\"photograph\" data-testid=\"image-high-res\"\/><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"text-onLight-02 py-3 pr-3\" data-testid=\"media-card-caption\">\n<p class=\"caption-2\">Guardiola says he doesn&#8217;t care about the outcome and identifies his &#8220;lost&#8221; traits last season<\/p>\n<p class=\"caption-2\">Video Credits: SNTV<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Bukayo Saka was featured at halftime as the team chased the equalizer, but Arteta refused to make a mistake with his tactics for the first 45 minutes. Instead, he said that most of the opening period was on track for Arsenal, except for his goal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>He said:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;I think they scored the goal after absolutely nothing before that. We were a little shaky for five or ten minutes. And after we still got the game in hand, we started dominating it.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;The second half was a continuation with one different player, followed by two or three players.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>Arteta recently began discussing alternatives as the game&#8217;s &#8220;finisher&#8221; and forced the decision to lift scorer Martinelli off the bench. The Spaniard explained why he was called to him in the drift of the game and pointed to his goal against Bilbao as a reason to give him another chance.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;We had very good momentum too,&#8221; he began. &#8220;He&#8217;s been in a really good moment and after the match against Bilbao, that period is worth more. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<p>&#8220;His energy and attitude were really good, so he had the impact he had on the team.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mt-3 first:mt-0 lg:mt-4\">\n<div data-testid=\"atom-body-paragraph\" class=\"text-onLight-02 break-words body-2 md:body-1\">Stream TNT Sports and Discovery+ including the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Serie A, Men&#8217;s and Women&#8217;s FA Cup and more.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/premier-league\/2025-2026\/mikel-arteta-arsenal-selection-man-city_sto23224142\/story.shtml\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta answered questions about the midfield selection in a 1-1 draw with Manchester City, saying, &#8220;No one asked me about Bilbao&#8217;s midfield three.&#8221; As a result, Arsenal finished second with 10 points in the Premier League table, with Liverpool, five points behind the leader, and Manchester City, with seven points. He said:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8288","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-english-premier-league"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mikel Arteta defended Arsenal&#039;s midfield selection against Manchester City, saying he believed it was &quot;the best for the team.&quot; - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/21\/mikel-arteta-defended-arsenals-midfield-selection-against-manchester-city-saying-he-believed-it-was-the-best-for-the-team\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mikel Arteta defended Arsenal&#039;s midfield selection against Manchester City, saying he believed it was &quot;the best for the team.&quot; - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta answered questions about the midfield selection in a 1-1 draw with Manchester City, saying, &#8220;No one asked me about Bilbao&#8217;s midfield three.&#8221; As a result, Arsenal finished second with 10 points in the Premier League table, with Liverpool, five points behind the leader, and Manchester City, with seven points. 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