Quite a few Arsenal fans on Twitter are blaming Mikel Arteta for Cedric Soares’s latest international snub.
The former Southampton defender has not been named in the Portugal squad for Euro 2020, it transpired on Thursday.
Soares, who joined Arsenal on a permanent basis last summer, has only managed eight Premier League starts for the Gunners this season.
Even when Kieran Tierney was ruled out for a number of weeks recently, Arsenal boss Arteta began playing Granit Xhaka as a left-back instead of Soares, who has 34 caps for his country.
And some fans of the Emirates Stadium club believe that Arteta is largely responsible for the 29-year-old not getting the call for this summer’s tournament.
Here’s what some Arsenal supporters are saying:
Is Arteta to blame? Well, no.
It’s Arteta’s job to win football matches for Arsenal and if he felt that Xhaka was a better option to replace Tierney in that role than Soares – who is a right-back – then so be it.
It’s true that Soares has had some good games for the North Londoners this season – including at left-back – but by the same token, the Spanish coach sees the players in training every single day and he must’ve had a good reason to prefer Xhaka.
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