Arteta wants Willian to influence young Arsenal attackers

Arsenal boss, Mikel Arteta, is hoping for big things from Willian this season.

And the manager is counting on Willian being an influence on his young attackers – including Nicolas Pepe.

After the victory over Fulham, Arteta said: “Well, it’s not for Nico, I think it’s for the players that were on the bench and as well the ones that we had to leave at home. If they raise their levels then the performances of the team and club are going to improve and this is what I demand from them. I’m really happy with all the boys and the way they’re training, but the selection is getting more complicated and with this new rule of just having only 18 players in the squad makes it very difficult.”

read also:Arteta: Willian, Gabriel, Lacazette showed terrific commitment against Fulham

On throwing in Gabriel, he added: “Ideally I wanted to give him some time because he’s only trained a few days with the team and physically he hasn’t played a competitive match in six months, so obviously there was a risk of injury as well, but credit to him because he performed really well physically, he felt good and he was a handful today.”