Mikel Arteta singles out two Arsenal players key to beating Man City

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta admits his players are leaning on the experience of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko ahead of Wednesday’s match at former club Manchester City. The duo joined the Gunners last summer and have both made vital impacts on the squad.

Jesus and Zinchenko both won four Premier League titles during their spells at City. No other player in the Arsenal squad has won the title in England.

Arsenal have exceeded most expectations to even be in the race for top spot this season. Champions League qualification would have been deemed a successful season for the north London club after six seasons out of Europe’s elite club competition.

But now in the business end of the season, the experience of having been there and done it before is key. Arsenal head to City knowing they realistically must avoid defeat to keep their title hopes alive following three successive draws.

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Speaking at his press conference on Tuesday, Arteta highlighted the importance of his two summer recruits from the Etihad. Asked if his squad can lean on Jesus and Zinchenko, the Spaniard said: “For sure. I think the experience is key.

“When you’ve been in those moments, to handle those moments, to understand the importance of certain things when you’re competing in a football match, the capacity to transmit like those two players have to the rest of the team a lot of things that are very, very important. And then the rest, some of them are young but they’ve played a lot of games already.”

It is not just during difficult times that Jesus and Zinchenko can have an impact. Arteta claims it was back in August when they first made it clear to the rest of the squad that a title challenge was possible.

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Asked how that came about, Arteta added: “In a very natural way. I think when they came in after two weeks, three weeks, they said, because they’ve been where we’ve been, ‘we can win this league’.

“So it’s not something that we have started to feel or they have tried to transmit a few months ago – it’s been going on since August. So it’s not something that now you rely on them, no no. The process has been coming for a long time.”

Arteta confirmed Granit Xhaka is still a doubt for the trip to Manchester. The Switzerland midfielder missed the 3-3 draw with Southampton last Friday due to illness but is hopeful of training on Tuesday.

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