Marquinhos may finally make his Arsenal debut tonight.
Well, competitive debut that is.
The 19-year-old Brazilian impressed for the Gunners in some pre-season outings but he’s been an unused substitute in Arsenal’s last three Premier League games.
However, the fact he’s making the matchday squad on a regular basis is evidence that he’s in Mikel Arteta’s plans this season and maybe, just maybe, he could earn a debut tonight.
The North Londoners kick off their Europa League campaign with a visit to FC Zurich.
Arteta put his side through their paces at London Colney yesterday afternoon, before boarding a flight to Switzerland.
And interestingly, Marquinhos, who cost Arsenal £3 million during the summer, was spotted in training and on the runway before the flight.
Here’s some photographs of the South American attacker:
Debut for Marquinhos?
On Wednesday, HITC Sport wrote about how a debut makes perfect sense for the teenager tonight.
Arsenal failed to sign another winger late in the transfer window and with Emile Smith Rowe having a poor start to the campaign injury wise, and Nicolas Pepe leaving the Emirates Stadium on loan, there’s a lot of pressure on Arteta to keep Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli fit.
Rotation will be the name of the game for the Spanish manager this season and juggling both the Premier League and Europa League will be difficult.
He has to rotate Saka and Martinelli when he can and this is a game where Arteta could – and probably will – replace one of them with Marquinhos.
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