Arteta thinks Emile Smith Rowe is becoming more important, shares what he asked him to do

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has told Football.London that he thinks playmaker Emile Smith Rowe is developing and becoming more important.

The Gunners were in FA Cup action against Newcastle United on Saturday evening, and it turned out to be a tricky evening.

Neither side could find the winner in 90 minutes, so the game went to extra time – and even then, the game was something of a struggle.

Eventually, Smith Rowe found the net to open the scoring, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang then converting a second to send Arsenal through.

Arsenal weren’t exactly convincing, but they’re through, and that’s all that matters as they dispatched of the Magpies with a 2-0 win.

Smith Rowe was again a bright spot, even though he had a red card scrapped thanks to VAR; Arsenal’s match-winner could have been off the pitch on another day!

The 20-year-old has been a big part of Arsenal’s recent revival, and having scored a fine goal, it was no surprise to see Arteta praise him.

Arteta admitted that Smith Rowe is really growing and developing, becoming more important for Arsenal – and having been asked to get forward and be more of a goal threat, the youngster did exactly that.

“Well, that means that we believe in him, that he’s doing really well, that he’s growing,” said Arteta. “He’s becoming more and more important in the team and today he showed that again the way he came on. The personality that he played with. And we asked him to be more in the box to be more a threat in front of goal, and today he scored a really important goal for us,” he added.