NUNO TAVARES used to “annoy” Mikel Arteta at Arsenal before he was shipped out on loan.
The Portuguese left-back left the Emirates last summer to join Marseille on a season-long deal.
The 23-year-old only moved to the Gunners from Benfica in 2021 but struggled to make an impact in the Premier League.
He made just 22 top-flight appearances for Arsenal before the signing of Oleksandr Zinchenko forced him to look elsewhere for first-team action.
He has enjoyed a rollercoaster start to life in France.
Tavares has managed to score six times for Marseille to win over supporters but his hot-headnesses has landed him in disciplinary trouble.
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Last month he was sent off late on in his side’s 2-1 win over Montpellier for viciously kicking opponent Arnaud Souquet and was reprimanded by the club.
Montpellier defender Christopher Jullien was furious with Tavares’ challenge on his team-mate, with the pair becoming involved in a shoving match.
Incredibly Tavares was initially only shown a second yellow card, before it was upgraded to a straight red following a VAR review.
His latest outing was in Sunday’s 3-0 home defeat to Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain where local media slammed his performance.
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Tavares was deployed in the unfamiliar position of right-back for the game by manager Igor Tudor before his poor first half display led to him switching to his natural side.
However, that failed to have any impact as both he and his team-mates were easily swept aside by PSG.
L’Equipe claims that he “sometimes seemed lost on the pitch” during the match.
And then they state that Arteta and his staff were “often annoyed with his behaviour” and that is why they agreed to loan him to Marseille.
But Arsenal have obviously not given up hope on Tavares developing into a top player.
They refused to include an agreement to buy in the deal with Marseille – that is despite the star himself admitting that he wanted one inserted.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
