Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has revealed that one of his regrets during his time in charge of Arsenal was not having the courage to change his goalkeeper midway through a game, before predicting that someone is going to do it in the near future.
The Gunners signed David Raya from Brentford over the summer, and the Spaniard was handed his debut for the trip to Goodison Park over regular first-choice goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale.
He turned in a flawless performance, keeping a clean sheet as his side edged to a 1-0 win over Everton courtesy of a goal from Leandro Trossard, their first win at Goodison Park since 2017.
“THAT IS DELICIOUSLY SHARP!”
Trossard’s shot SMASHES off the post and Arsenal lead! 💥 pic.twitter.com/wavixGF3OP
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 17, 2023
Quizzed on why he opted for Raya over Ramsdale and the competition that may be brewing between them, Arteta revealed that at times he has wanted to change goalkeeper midway through a game for purely tactical reasons, something that is virtually unheard of.
“I’m a really young manager. I’ve been in this job for three and a half years and I have few regrets with what I’ve done. One of them was that in two occasions, I felt after 60 minutes and 85 minutes, in two games, in this period, to change the keeper in that moment”, he explained.
“But I didn’t do it. I didn’t have the courage to do it. But I’m able to take a winger, or a striker, or put a central defender on to drop to a five and hold that result. We drew those games and I was so unhappy.”
Arteta is going to revolutionise the use of GKs. Wonder how long before substituting GKs for tactical reasons becomes a thing. pic.twitter.com/n0vV1Gepsf
— FK (@fkhanage) September 17, 2023
“Trust me — it’s like playing Fabio Vieira or Eddie Nketiah… it is nothing different”, he added when further pressed on who his no.1 would be going forwards.
“I have 11 players to pick and no-one is different”.
