“You Have To Love Him” – Arteta Provides Backing To Zinchenko After Shaky Display

By The Editor
on 2nd December 2023

Mikel Arteta accepts Zinchenko’s imperfections…

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta supported Oleksandr Zinchenko after the left-back produced a shaky defensive performance in our 2-1 win against Wolves.

Zinchenko displayed why he’s become a polarising figure in Arteta’s side on Saturday afternoon after helping us race to a 2-0 lead with a sensational assist for Martin Odegaard.

With the team in a commanding lead and managing the game the order of play, the 26-year-old had many lapses in concentration that allowed the visitors to have hope.

In the final 10 minutes of the game, Zinchenko made yet another error when he was caught on the ball in our penalty area by Nelson Semedo, with the ball falling to Cunha who smashed it home.

It caused us to live through a nervy end to a game we completely controlled, though Arteta refused to dwell on Zinchenko’s defensive lapses and instead praised the Ukrainian’s overall game.

“You have to love him, how he is, every player as well,” Arteta told the press in his post-match press conference.

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“He has strengths and weaknesses and Alex has got many more strengths.

“This happened, it can happen to any player, we have to learn from it, because in those areas it’s a big no to play especially after certain things on the previous phrase and that’s it, we will get better.”

It seems as though Arteta isn’t viewing the error as solely down to Zinchenko’s lack of concentration and the boss is unhappy about the pass he received in that area of the pitch.

As our reputation enhances in the league for our defensive solidly, it’s rather comforting that the biggest threat to that is unforced errors.