“There is something Arteta is not telling us about….” Merson believes that Mikel Arteta is not telling the truth to Arsenal fans

Merson thinks Mikel Arteta isn’t telling the truth about £27m Arsenal
Paul Merson says ‘something is up’ as Mikel Arteta refuses to start Gabriel Magalhaes for Arsenal.

‘Something is up’: Merson thinks Mikel Arteta isn’t telling the truth about £27m Arsenal
Paul Merson says ‘something is up’ as Mikel Arteta refuses to start Gabriel Magalhaes for Arsenal.

The Sky Sports pundit says he ‘doesn’t know why’ Mikel Arteta would break up such an ‘effective’ partnership that Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba built up last season, as he feels there is ‘more to his exclusion from the starting XI’.

For Arsenal’s opening three Premier League games, it has been Ben White who has partnered Saliba at the heart of the defence and not Gabriel, with Merson adding that the previous partnership ‘worked so well’ 12 months ago, as he told Sportskeeda.

There are some who think that Arteta is making too many changes during the early stages of the season and it resulted in their dropped points at home to Fulham last time out.

Another one of them is playing Thomas Partey at right-back, with Ian Wright urging the manager to bring back two players for the clash against Manchester United on Sunday.

Either way, Merson thinks that something is happening in the background between Gabriel and Arteta, hence his continued calls to leave the £27 million star (Sky Sports) on the bench.

“I think something is up with Gabriel Magalhaes,” said Merson

“I don’t see why Mikel Arteta would break up the effective centre-back pairing of Gabriel and William Saliba. It worked so well for them last season.

“So, I think there’s more to his exclusion from the starting lineup than it being a matter of team selection.”

Manchester United v Arsenal FC – Premier League
Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images
Will Gabriel return for Man United game?
There will be Arsenal fans calling for that change to happen, along with others, and in truth, they might get their wish because Oleksandr Zinchenko is also back.

For the opening stages of the season, Arteta hasn’t been able to use the players he wants for the inverted fullback role, with Zinchenko just returning from injury and Jurrien Timber out for the long-term.

That has forced Arteta to put Partey at right-back, play an unnatural player at left-back because Kieran Tierney has also left on loan, then he hasn’t helped himself by also making a change to the centre-back area.

Either way, the quicker he reverts back to type, the easier it will be for him and his players.