{"id":193807,"date":"2025-10-06T18:31:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193807\/"},"modified":"2025-10-06T18:31:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-06T18:31:08","slug":"arteta-hails-arsenal-depth-after-resting-rice-eze-saka-in-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/193807\/","title":{"rendered":"Arteta hails Arsenal depth after resting Rice, Eze, Saka in win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal<\/a>‘s strength in depth makes them better equipped to go even further in this season’s Champions League.<\/p>\n

Arsenal reached the semifinals last term before bowing out to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arteta was able to rotate his squad for Tuesday’s 2-0 league phase win<\/a> over Olympiacos<\/a> with a stacked bench including Declan Rice<\/a>, Eberechi Eze<\/a> and Bukayo Saka<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And it was England<\/a> winger Saka who settled some frayed nerves when he climbed off the bench to score their second goal.<\/p>\n

“With all respect, last season we were looking [at the bench] and we had five academy players there, that probably never played professional football in the Champions League, so it makes a difference,” Arteta said.<\/p>\n

“Today we decided to change six players because I want everybody to really be involved and feel part of it, and it was great.<\/p>\n

A Bukayo Saka strike calmed any late nerves at the Emirates on Tuesday.\u00a0Bradley Collyer\/PA Images via Getty Images<\/p>\n

“We had the feeling as well that physically we were dropping because we played a really intense match in Newcastle a few days ago.<\/p>\n

“The ones that came in again, they lifted the level, and they helped us to win the game, and that’s great.”<\/p>\n

Gabriel Martinelli<\/a> tapped Arsenal into a 12th-minute lead but they needed a David Raya<\/a> wonder-save to deny ex-Wolves man Daniel Podence<\/a> an equaliser.<\/p>\n

And the tension was palpable around the Emirates until Saka plundered the second two minutes into stoppage time.<\/p>\n

“I’m very happy, winning in the Champions League is always very complicated,” Arteta added.<\/p>\n

“We started really well, got the goal, a lot of threats and two or three big chances, but when you don’t put them away in this competition you have to be careful.<\/p>\n

“We had to make an incredible save to deny them a goal which you need in this competition as well.<\/p>\n

– Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli score as Arsenal beat Olympiacos<\/a>
– Are Manchester City ‘back’? Not even Pep Guardiola knows<\/a>
– Revisiting every transfer from this summer: Should our expectations change?<\/a><\/p>\n

“After that we had moments of overall dominance but we got a little bit deeper and every time they put balls in the box it was dangerous.<\/p>\n

“We missed two big chances but found a way with Bukayo and breathed a little bit.”<\/p>\n

It was a surreal evening for the Gunners boss as he was up against veteran Olympiacos boss Jose Luis Mendilibar, who had coached Arteta when he was just 13.<\/p>\n

“It was great to see him,” Arteta said. “So glad that he’s doing so well. Very happy for him.<\/p>\n

“And it’s strange at the same moment because he was my coach. So when you have to play against your former coach, it’s always something weird.<\/p>\n

“I’m getting older — which I think is good. I learned a lot from him and from my time with him. It was a good experience.<\/p>\n

“Thank God we won the game and I wish him all the best.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal‘s strength in depth makes them better equipped to go even further in this season’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-193807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193807\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}