Arsenal are back in Champions League action against Club Brugge on Wednesday night with Mikel Arteta facing a key selection decision
Former Premier League star Alan Smith believes Mikel Arteta faces a problem when it comes to selecting his Arsenal team because of two players.
The Gunners are preparing to face Club Brugge in Belgium as they look to maintain their perfect Champions League record.
However, to maximise success against Brugge, Smith warned that playing both Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze may not bring the best outcome – a dilemma Arteta is currently facing.
“My old team-mate, Martin Keown, gave him [Odegaard] the man of the match, didn’t he? I thought he did okay,” Smith told Best Betting Sites.
“But I think the problem with Odegaard, maybe, and for Eze, is incorporating them both in that team. Eze came off at halftime.
“And you don’t want to lose his creativity. So that’s something that Arteta will be thinking about.
“Is it either or? Or can he play both of them? Odegaard is a different sort of player from Eze.
“But it’ll be interesting, the team selection, actually. They’ve obviously got a game tonight as well, so that’ll come into the thinking.”
Arsenal have also been hampered by injuries in their pursuit of Premier League and Champions League success, with Gabriel, William Saliba, Cristhian Mosquera, Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard all sidelined.
When quizzed about whether Smith thinks that can have a significant impact on Arsenal’s ambitions, he added: “Once more, a lot of clubs are getting injuries and Arsenal, I don’t know statistically whether they’re towards the top of the list.
“But it happened last year as well. But we’ve all said Arsenal can afford to get injuries now and not suffer so much.
“And I think that’s true still. Obviously, to lose Gabriel and Saliba, to lose both, is difficult to replace. But in [Piero] Hincapie and Mosquera, they’ve got two really good players.
“So you’ve got to get through periods like this, and I think Arsenal’s squad should be deep enough and good enough to get through a spell like this.”
