Albert Sambi Lokonga has told Nuno Tavares to ‘show them’ after the Arsenal star posted on Instagram that Monday’s defeat was ‘extremely frustrating’ for him.
The 22-year-old was hauled off at half-time by Mikel Arteta, as Arsenal suffered a 3-0 defeat at Crystal Palace.
This isn’t the first time that Arteta has taken Tavares out of the firing line early because he did so against Nottingham Forest too – perhaps in a more brutal fashion because that was in the first half against a Championship side.
Nonetheless, Tavares is clearly struggling when pushed into first-team action, despite showcasing strong performances early on.
When the left-back posted on Instagram about Monday’s defeat, the likes of Lokonga and Gabriel publicly sent messages of support to the player.
Lokonga told him: ‘Let’s show them who you are.’, whilst Gabriel added ‘together, brother’.
Arteta now has a big call to make as to whether he starts Tavares against Brighton, or picks somebody else.
It’s pretty clear that his confidence is already low and it will be dealt with another blow if he isn’t starting at the weekend.
At the end of the day, Tavares is the bonafide left-back at the club, so if a Granit Xhaka, Cedric Soares, Bukayo Saka or a youngster is picked ahead of him, then it might just hit him even further.
But, at the end of the day, from a defensive standpoint, he has been all over the place during his last few starts.
And, in truth, Arteta can’t afford to carry passengers from that sense, so this is going to be a big, big call either way.
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