Mikel Arteta has hinted that Nuno Tavares could earn his Arsenal debut on Saturday.
The Gunners spent £8 million on signing the Portuguese defender from Benfica last weekend.
It was reported that Nuno would get chances in some of Arsenal’s pre-season games during their tour of Scotland.
But he was nowhere to be seen in the 2-1 defeat by Hibernian on Tuesday.
However, the North Londoners are back in action on Saturday for a clash against Rangers at Ibrox.
And Arteta has told Arsenal’s official website that Nuno may get his debut.
He said: “He didn’t have all the paperwork necessary to be involved but hopefully that will be all ready to go and hopefully he can have a debut on Saturday against Rangers.”
Exciting
This is exciting for two reasons.
Arsenal fans are already excited by the Gers clash because a certain Kieran Tierney – once of Celtic – cut short his holiday to have a chance of facing his former club’s bitter Old Firm rivals at Ibrox.
Tierney, like Nuno, is a left-back and if the Scot has enough in the tank to play in the first half then it could, in theory, open the door for Arteta’s new boy to play the second half, or vice versa.
But remember, Rangers are the champions of Scotland.
If Hibs isn’t an easy game for Arteta’s side then meeting Steven Gerrard’s troops at Ibrox certainly won’t be.
But it’ll give Nuno an early taste of British football and could stand him in good stead going forward.
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