Interview

Arteta - They are important for our future

Mikel Arteta has praised his team's "chemistry and cohesion" despite wholesale changes to the line-up on Thursday night.

The manager rotated nine players for our group game against Molde and, after a sluggish start, we produced a storming second-half performance to win 4-1.

 

Joe Willock caused endless problems with his driving runs into the box all night, forcing two own goals before grabbing one for himself right at the end.

 

"With Joe, and the other young lads as well... because of the senior players, they are not having many opportunities in the Premier League," Arteta told Arsenal Media.

 

"To change teams like that with a lot of new faces, to get that chemistry and cohesion in the team is not easy and they all showed tonight how much they want to play and showed us that they are a real possibility for our team.

 

"Obviously it's a competition that we want to win and we want to play the best players in. Not [just play] young players because they are young, I want to play players that deserve to play for this football club because we believe that they have the qualities to perform.

 

"They are players that we can develop to be really relevant and important players for our future. We have a few cases [of this] at the club, we have to be patient with them, we have to give them opportunities and they have to respond."

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