Five Arsenal stars Mikel Arteta will rest vs West Ham to save for Newcastle Premier League clash
Mikel Arteta is expected to make a number of changes to his starting XI for the Carabao Cup clash against West Ham after the weekend's victory over Sheffield United in the Premier League. A number of surprising decisions have already been made by the Arsenal boss in the last week with Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Magalhaes both missing the 5-0 triumph over the Blades.
Despite the absence of the influential duo, the Gunners strolled to another three points at Emirates Stadium with Eddie Nketiah bagging a hat-trick. After the game, Arteta was specifically asked about Odegaard's absence with his answer perhaps also revealing why the Brazilian defender was replaced by Jakub Kiwior.
«We went through all the minutes that everybody has played the last three weeks and some of them played an enormous amount of minutes,» he admitted. «Martin has been as well carrying a little thing that wasn't very comfortable in the games. So we have players with enormous quality and we have to choose and we believe that it was the right day to do so.»
After not making it off the bench on Saturday, Arteta was asked for some clarification on if the club captain would be rested again or not on Wednesday evening against West Ham in the Carabao Cup. He said: «We rested him the other day and now it is about how long we rest him and how we manage now the minutes and the rhythm he needs to be at his best.
»We had the opportunity to do it, we didn't use him in the end so that was a good offload for him. It is not only that. There are a lot of things that you have to do, it is impossible to play with no niggles in football at this level when you have games every three days."
Odegaard not being recalled to the starting XI would likely see either Kai Havertz or
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