Arsenal beat Portsmouth 2-0 in the 5th Round of the FA Cup this week thanks to goals from Sokratis and Eddie Nketiah.
It was a match where the manager chose to rest most of his regular first-team players, choosing to name a bunch of youngsters in his starting line-up.
In the defensive line, the manager gave a debut to January signing Pablo Mari, alongside David Luiz and it was Sokratis who had to play at the right-back role.
And now, Arteta has explained the tiny bit of problem of naming the Greek international out of his favoured position in central defence.
The manager said in his post-match press conference: “He moans a little bit because it is not his position!
“But for certain games, he is very helpful and he always has the right attitude and he has the qualities to play there in essential moments when we need him.
“Sometimes you need to interpret that when we have the ball it is a little bit different for him to use the spaces like he should do in relation to what the opponents are doing, but in general I think he is doing really well.”
The manager also emphasised on the fact that he needs luck on his side in order to win the FA Cup with Arsenal this season.
He added: “To win any competition you need to be lucky with the draw, you need to have luck in certain moments and after you have to look after every detail if you want to win.
“It looks like it [could be seven of the top 10 teams in the next round] but let’s see what happens, let’s see what the next draw is, but we have another game in the Premier League on Saturday, so let’s focus on that.”
This season, Sokratis has mostly played in central defence but whenever needed, the 31-year-old has doubled up as a full-back primarily due to the injury-hit season of Hector Bellerin.
