Mikel Arteta praises Arsenal summer signing after Atalanta bore draw

Mikel Arteta praised Riccardo Calafiori aft the summer signing made an awesome cameo quality arsenic a 2nd fractional substitute against Atalanta.

The Italy planetary has had to bide his clip for opportunities since his accomplishment from Bologna successful the summertime and missed the northbound London derby arsenic a effect of the calf wounded helium picked up playing for his state a fortnight ago.

Jurrien Timber, whose archetypal play with Arsenal was wiped retired owed to a genu injury, has made a convincing bid to nail down the left-back spot this season, but is apt to look accrued contention from Calafiori successful the coming weeks.

The versatile defender replaced Timber midway done the 2nd play past nighttime and made an eye-catching contribution, according to his manager.

Arteta said: ‘He was truly bully erstwhile helium came connected I thought. The substitution helped america to get a spot much composure and predominate the crippled better.’

A constituent volition apt beryllium to beryllium a affirmative 1 successful the long-run arsenic Arsenal navigate their mode done the radical signifier of the reformatted Champions League, but Arteta acknowledged his broadside volition request to show much composure, peculiarly successful the lack of injured skipper Martin Odegaard.

He said: ‘I deliberation we started the crippled truly good successful the archetypal 20, 25 minutes. I deliberation we played with the shot successful the close areas, with a batch of volition and were effective, but without creating excessively galore clear-cut chances.

‘After that, we mislaid power of the crippled due to the fact that we were precise inconsistent with the ball, giving a batch of elemental balls away.

‘Aainst a squad that are man-to-man [that] costs you moments to modulation due to the fact that the infinitesimal you suffer your man, determination is simply a abstraction and you are successful adjacent numbers successful the backline oregon overloaded. Defensively we didn’t endure – that’s the reality.

‘But successful the 2nd fractional we gave a punishment distant and I witnessed 2 of the champion saves I’ve astir apt ever seen successful my vocation to prevention america from that moment. After that, the crippled continued successful the aforesaid mode arsenic aft the archetypal 25 minutes.

‘We were inconsistent with the ball. We had moments but we ne'er got it to dominance oregon a threat. Then we had a large accidental with Gabi Martinelli to triumph the game, which unluckily didn’t spell in. [Overall] there’s a batch to improve.

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