ARSENAL boss Mikel Arteta was very pleased with £50million man Ben White’s first start in a Gunners shirt.
The 23-year-old played just over an hour in the 1-0 defeat to Spurs on Sunday, but the score was level when White was replaced by Calum Chambers.
The Mind Series clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium was White’s second game in an Arsenal shirt after he made a cameo appearance off the bench in the home defeat to Chelsea last week.
Despite two losses from two games in the Mind Series against London rivals Chelsea and Spurs, Mikel Arteta is pleased with the way things are going at the Emirates ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.
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And on Ben White’s performance, the Arsenal boss said: “He was really good. But again, it’s a match where they haven’t played.
“Some of them they’ve [only] trained for four or five days.
“So you can still see and we didn’t want to risk many more, but it was a good start.
“To lose any game [and] to lose against them obviously even more.
“Take the positives and learn and for the next time be more prepared and better.
“We took a lot of good things. We played with a lot of kids as well who did extremely well today, so I think it’s good for the preparation.”
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Arteta will be hoping that the two-cap England international will help the Gunners improve on last season’s dismal eighth placed finish that saw the North London club miss out on European football for the first time in 25 years.
And Ben White is one of three Arsenal signings so far this summer, joining Nuno Tavares and Albert Sambi Lokonga at the Emirates ahead of the 2021/22 campaign, with a combined £75million spent on the three of them.
White’s £50million move from Brighton makes him Arsenal’s third most expensive player of all time, with only the £57.4million paid for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and £72million fee for Nicolas Pepe topping that number.
Arsenal though are still said to be looking at bringing in some new faces before the end of the transfer window.
With Joe Willock on his way out of the club in a reported £22milllion move to Newcastle, funds are being freed up as the Gunners target an attacking midfielder as a long-term replacement for Mesut Ozil.
James Maddison has been linked with a switch to North London, but any potential move is likely to cost the Gunners £100million according to Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers.
But it’s former loanee Martin Odegaard who remains top of Arsenal’s wish list, and according to transfer expert Fabrizio Romano, the Gunners are still ‘keeping an eye’ on Odegaard’s situation.
Sheffield United goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale has also been linked with a move to Arsenal as Mikel Arteta looks for a shot-stopper to provide competition with Bernd Leno for a starting spot between the sticks.
The Gunners get their Premier League campaign underway on Friday August 13, kicking off their season away at Premier League new boys Brentford.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
