Tierney’s comments show exactly why Arteta was desperate to keep David Luiz at Arsenal

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Kieran Tierney spoke on The Open Goal podcast about David Luiz and why he is Arsenal’s real leader.

The Brazilian had a lot of criticism come his way last season. Luiz conceded five penalties in the Premier League last term; more than any other player in the whole division.

The former Chelsea man was ripped to shreds by many fans and pundits after his performance against Manchester City in June. He came off the bench, gifted a goal, conceded a cheap penalty and got sent off, all in about 30 minutes.

His contract was up in the air at that point and almost everyone associated with the game urged Arsenal and Mikel Arteta to get rid. However, the Arsenal boss publicly backed Luiz and handed him a new contract which surprised many.

The Brazilian is extremely popular in Arsenal’s dressing room. Tierney spoke about a conversation with Luiz early last season and that alone shows why Arteta was desperate to keep him at the club.

Tierney said: “He’s a legend. The biggest legend ever. I love him. He’s so good with all the young boys and everybody loves him. He’s a proper leader, like even if he’s not got the armband, he still leads.

“I signed the same day as David Luiz. He’s a winner, a born winner. He was saying to me during the season when we were doing bad, ‘we are going to win silverware this season, believe me’. He’s about motivational speeches & all that, when he talks, everybody listens.

“He said to me one game when I hadn’t had my best game, we drew, we should have been winning as it was a home game, the fans were on us & we weren’t doing well, he just went, ‘Don’t worry about it, you keep playing your football and I’ll take the heat’.”

Luiz received a lot of heat from fans, ex-players and pundits. The Brazilian, however, took responsibility for his mistake against Manchester City and came back with one of his best performances in an Arsenal shirt against Pep Guardiola’s side in the FA Cup semi-final.

Tierney is not the first to have spoken about his admiration for Luiz. The likes of Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka have also publicly hailed the Brazilian for his help behind the scenes.

That explains why the Gunners ignored everybody’s opinion of the defender and decided to offer him a new deal in June. That, after his performances in the last two games of the FA Cup, has proved to be a decent decision by Arteta and Arsenal’s board.