Mikel Arteta has admitted he has regrets over a key decision he made earlier this season that has come back to haunt Arsenal.
After finishing second behind Manchester City in each of the last two seasons, many believed this could finally be Arsenal’s year to win the Premier League.
However, the Gunners have ended up falling well short, with Liverpool wrapping up the title with four games to spare last week.
Arteta has previously bemoaned refereeing decisions that went against his side in the opening weeks of the campaign, but his team have also been hit by injuries, and he feels one particular setback has proved costly.
Gabriel Jesus suffered a season-ending knee injury in Arsenal’s FA Cup penalty shootout defeat by Manchester United in January after returning to his best form, and Arteta has revealed he wishes he’d substituted the Brazilian striker earlier in the game.
Asked on the Men in Blazers podcast if he had made any mistakes that he would like to change if he could, Arteta replied: ‘Possibly yes. It’s very difficult to understand that, but if I could pause the game and say “Gabriel Jesus, we brought you back to life, you are doing incredibly well, you’re now going to get injured”, I would say “stop, we are going to swap him, bring another player in and continue to play the game”.
Mikel Arteta has revealed the decision he regrets from this season at Arsenal
Arteta admitted he wishes he had taken Gabriel Jesus off before he suffered a season-ending knee injury against Manchester United in January
Arsenal went on to lose on penalties to United, and have been forced to play without a recognised striker in recent months following the injury to Jesus
‘Unfortunately we cannot do this. It is not like VAR where we can overturn the decisions like this. The decision is made there is no way back.’
Jesus had scored six goals in as many games prior to his injury, but has been out of action for the past four months, and is not due to return until the latter stages of 2025.
Just one month after Jesus injured his knee, Kai Havertz tore his hamstring during a warm-weather training camp in Dubai, leaving Arsenal without a recognised striker after they opted not to dip into the transfer market in January.
Arteta has been forced to push Mikel Merino into attack, and the Spaniard has stepped up to score six goals following his change of position.
However, goals have been hard to come by at times without Jesus or Havertz up top, and Arsenal looked particularly toothless in the final third during their 1-0 defeat by PSG last week.
They will get the chance for redemption in Paris tonight as they bid to make their first Champions League final in 19 years, but will once again have to rely on deploying a makeshift centre forward after losing Jesus and Havertz to injury.
