Arteta still confident for ‘very positive’ Nwaneri loan despite Marseille changes | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta says the best decision was still for Ethan Nwaneri to leave Arsenal for game time, despite a chaotic first couple of weeks at Marseille.

The 18-year-old departed north London for France during the January transfer window, with the chance to gain more valuable first-team minutes one of the factors behind the England youth international’s decision.

Fast forward three weeks and manager Roberto De Zerbi has now departed the Ligue Un side after a 5-0 defeat to PSG last weekend. Arsenal have also suffered injury issues during Nwaneri’s time away from the Emirates, with Mikel Merino and Kai Havertz suffering injury setbacks.

When asked whether he had any regrets with letting the youngster leave, Arteta stood firm on his decision, citing it as the best choice for both player and club.

“That’s easy, after making the decision who could predict that Mikel was going to be out for five months and Kai, it’s unfortunate.

“At the end we have to make the decisions on the moment and understand the context and the best decision for the club, for Ethan, for sure it was for him to go and experience a different environment, have minutes played and getting ready to come back to us.

“I cannot control that against a decision and that’s part of playing on loan and that’s part of a journey of a football player, so you’re going to have to work with different coaches and that can happen any moment, you cannot control that, you cannot avoid that.

“Yes, one of the reasons for sure it was Roberto [De Zerbi] but as well it was Marseille and well Marseille as a club and as an environment brings to Ethan and I think that’s going to be still very positive.”

Arteta also confirmed there would be wholesale changes to freshen up the playing squad.

“We are doing that every week,” Arteta said. “Every three days we are playing different competitions, so we are so used to it, so we reflect on the game, take the positives, the learnings for sure that we have to improve and go on Sunday again with the energy and the batteries fully charged to go on and win the game.