Roy Hodgson shares reason why he subbed Arsenal target Patrick van Aanholt at half time

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Arsenal are in the market for a new left back, and seemingly eyed up Crystal Palace as a potential buying ground.

The Gunners allowed Sead Kolasinac to leave for Schalke in January, and Kieran Tierney’s injury issues mean a summer signing is likely in the left back spot.

A number of names were linked before the transfer deadline, with two Palace players were touted for moves to North London.

The London Evening Standard claimed that youngster Tyrick Mitchell has been scouted by Arsenal ahead of a possible move.

Then, The Mirror reported that Arsenal had turned their attention to Patrick van Aanholt having found Palace unwilling to deal Mitchell.

Van Aanholt is a free agent this summer and could still be a bargain option for Arsenal as a result, though he had a night to forget on Monday.

The Dutchman started on the left wing with Mitchell at left back as Palace took on Leeds United, and was substituted at half time in a 2-0 defeat.

Roy Hodgson has now told Football.London that he wanted to experiment with Van Aanholt further forward, but he found it ‘difficult’.

Hodgson would be willing to try it again, but it seems that the mixture of playing Mitchell and Van Aanholt together is a little clunky – and may just give Arsenal hope of landing one of them this summer.

“Well the reason was because we know how good they are in the wide areas and we thought because Patrick can play further forward that might be a good left side, that might give us a little bit more help defensively against Raphinha or Harrison, whoever played on that side,” said Hodgson. “But it didn’t work as well as we would have liked, it was hard for Patrick to come to terms with that position. But perhaps it might have gone a little bit better had we not been a goal down after three minutes.”

“It was a chance to look at something and I wouldn’t be averse to trying it again. But tonight I thought it was best at half-time to bring Andros, who is a more experienced performer in the wide area, onto the field in the hope that we could stay in the game, defend a bit better and maybe get an equaliser. But of course that plan was scotched by their early second half goal,” he added.