Arsenal’s January signing Pablo Mari made his debut for the club earlier this week as Arsenal beat Portsmouth in the 5th Round of the FA Cup. And now the manager has hinted that the centre-back is in contention to start vs West Ham United as well.
Pablo Mari impressed in his first competitive performance for the Gunners on Monday and now Mikel Arteta has hinted that the player could once again partner David Luiz in central defence.
‘Well he has recovered really well from the game,’ said Arteta when asked if Mari could feature via West Ham, via Metro.
‘He had 45 minutes with the Under-23s four days before that game. ‘He played 90 minutes, he said he’s physically good, he trained well and I think he’s ready to play if we need him to on Saturday.’
Apart from Pablo Mari, the club earlier on Thursday had also confirmed that Kieran Tierney has fully recovered from his shoulder injury and has returned back to full training. But speaking in his pre-match press conference, Arteta has made it clear that the Scottish international is yet to be available for selection.
‘He’s done two or three complete sessions, he’s feeling more and more confident with contact around him and hopefully, he will join in the squad soon,’ Arteta added.
But all the new delivered in the press conference was not positive since the Arsenal manager made it clear that the injury sustained by Lucas Torreira is indeed serious and the time frame of the rehab will only be known in the coming few days.
‘We don’t actually know the extent of the injury,’ confirmed the head coach.
‘He needs to see the specialist tomorrow here in London and then we will know more about it.’
Will Pablo Mari shine once again?
Pablo Mari did grab a lot of eyeballs vs Portsmouth but playing against the likes of Haller and Michail Antonio is a totally different ball-game.
The player is known to have a cool head on his shoulders especially during counter-attacks but playing in the Premier League will most certainly be a daunting task and we have a hint that Arteta might not want to risk using him against a side like West Ham United who have some really strong players upfront.
