Mikel Arteta reveals why he subbed off Partey and comments on the performance in Greece

Arsenal played the first leg of their UEFA Europa League encounter with Olympiacos on Thursday and Mikel Arteta’s men were able to come away with a 3-1 away win but one of the main talking points of the game were the boss of the North Londoners deciding to sub off Thomas Partey at the start of the second half.

Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey has played two games in a row since he returned from an injury and the gunners were hopeful that they would see him receive the full 90 minutes in the UEFA Europa League game against Olympiacos but he was however the first player to be subbed off by Mikel Arteta for Dani Ceballos who went on to make a mistake that saw the gunners concede.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta faced the media after the game and was asked about why the Ghanaian international was substituted off in the first few minutes of the second half and said that it was a tactical change despite the popular belief by fans which was that he was being rested ahead of the North London Derby.

“No, it was a tactical decision.” said Arteta after getting asked on Party’s substitution. 

Even though Arsenal have returned to London with a valuable 3-1 away win, the gunners were however close to putting themselves on pressure ahead of the 2nd leg when they conceded in the 58th minute due to a mistake made by Ceballos, just a few days when they failed to get three points against Burnley due to a mess up by Xhaka.  Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta faced the media after the game and had this to say when asked if he was impressed with their performance in that game. 

“No, because I want to be much more ruthless because as a team I don’t want to give anything to the opponents. The opponents are good enough by themselves to create problems, to create situations, to change organisational structures, individual quality that they have in this competition.” Mikel Arteta told Football.London.