Arsenal boss Arteta blasts Barcelona calling antics ‘not normal’ with Saka and Trossard lucky to avoid injury
MIKEL ARTETA took a swipe at Barcelona after last night’s bruising encounter in Los Angeles left Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard lucky to escape serious injury.
The Arsenal wingers were both the victims of nasty challenges during the 5-3 victory in their team’s final game of their pre-season tour of the US.
And Arteta said: “From the very first tackle it got really competitive for a friendly match.
“Playing in front of 70,000 people creates an atmosphere and they are elite players who all want to win.
“At the end I think it got a bit too much for a friendly but football belongs to the players and as soon as the game starts they’ll rebel against the coaches and do what they want.
“As soon as there’s the first foul of the game they’ll start getting intense but I think the show we put on for all the people who came to watch was really good.”
Barcelona boss Xaxi revealed: ”I said to Mikel at the end that it was like a Champions League game. The intensity they put in was not normal in a friendly.
“I understand that everyone wants to win but you don’t expect to have this many injuries and yellow cards in a game like this.
“This was our first game of the summer and Arsenal have now played four. They are a very strong team and they were at a very high level of rhythm that we weren’t expecting.”
Arteta confirmed that £105million Declan Rice was left out of last night’s match as a precaution after suffering a kick in training the previous day.
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He said: “Dec wasn’t really that comfortable to train and we didn’t want to take a risk.
“Aleksandr Zinchenko also has a little muscular issue and it’s a shame he hasn’t been able to play this whole tour, but I think he will be back soon.”
Arteta also admitted that he is still putting the finishing touches to his squad but needs to work on moving some players out after spending £200million this summer on Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber.
He said: “We have 30 players here which is unsustainable. The market is still open and things can happen. We are prepared for that.
“We still have improvements to make in terms of what we want to do in games but I am really happy with the squad at the moment.”
Arteta was particularly pleased with the performance of Gabriel Jesus in last night’s victory and said: “He didn’t score but it’s the best Gabi I’ve seen for months.
“He was transmitting that energy and belief, creating a lot of chaos and making everyone better.
“I’m really pleased with that and with the contributions of Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard.
“We have a lot of options up front and they are going to have to compete between them to give me a hard time.”
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