{"id":118,"date":"2026-03-17T21:49:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/?p=118"},"modified":"2026-03-17T21:49:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:49:17","slug":"3-players-mikel-arteta-simply-must-start-in-the-must-win-match-vs-bayer-leverkusen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/?p=118","title":{"rendered":"3 players Mikel Arteta simply must start in the must-win match vs Bayer Leverkusen"},"content":{"rendered":"


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After taking a gigantic step towards Premier League glory on Saturday, Arsenal remain on track for Champions League success At the weekend, the Gunners battled to a dramatic 2-0 victory over Everton, thanks to late goals from Viktor Gy\u00f6keres and then 16 year old Max Dowman. <\/p>\n

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After Manchester City could only draw at West Ham later in the evening, Mikel Arteta’s team are now nine points clear at the top, with supporters now really starting to believe. <\/p>\n

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Now though, not in Premier League action until 11 April, attention turns to other competitions, with the Champions League up first. Having won all eight league phase matches, most forecast that they would swat Bayer Leverkusen aside. <\/p>\n

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On the contrary, the Gunners were possibly lucky to leave North Rhine-Westphalia with a draw, snatching an equaliser courtesy of Kai Havertz’s late penalty at the BayArena. Thus, Tuesday’s second leg in North London is must win, the equation is simple, so here are three players Arteta must start if they’re to set up a quarter-final date with probably Bod\u00f8\/Glimt. <\/p>\n

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3 non-negotiable starters for Arsenal vs Bayer Leverkusen<\/h2>\n

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Ben White <\/h3>\n

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With the Carabao Cup Final against Manchester City to come on Sunday, there are question marks around Arsenal’s right-back spot. Jurri\u00ebn Timber hobbled off during the first half against Everton after suffering a knock, meaning he is unlikely to feature against die Schwarzroten. <\/p>\n

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It was Cristhian Mosquera who replaced the Dutchman on Saturday and, as has been the case whenever the Spaniard has been called upon, either at right-back or in the middle, he did a more than commendable job. Nevertheless, as a natural centre-back, Mosquera understandably lacks that attacking joie de vivre which, in a game Arsenal need to win, makes him a not ideal fit. <\/p>\n

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Thus, if there is any way Artera can start Benjamin White, it would be great to see him included in the lineup. Once an integral member of this team, White has seemingly been unable to shake off persistent injury issues all throughout the campaign. As a result, he has accumulated just 1,080 minutes, starting only 13 matches, not featuring in the Premier League at all since 25 January against Manchester United. Nevertheless, if he has 45 minutes or even an hour in his legs, White could be a game-changing starter in Timber’s absence. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gabriel Martinelli<\/h3>\n

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Looking further forward, Gabriel Martinelli is possibly the squad member that frustrates Arsenal supporters more than any other. Conversely, under the lights after the Champions League anthem has been played, the Brazilian is a different force.<\/p>\n

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Earlier in the campaign, Martinelli became the first Arsenal player in history to score in five success Champions League appearances, on target against Athletic, Olympiacos, Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, Bayern Munich and then Club Brugge. By subsequently netting against Kairat too, six of his 11 goals this season have come in Europe, bagging only one in the Premier League. <\/p>\n

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\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Players<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n

\n

Club<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n

\n

Total goals<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n

\n

Goals-per-90<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n

\n

Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Real Madrid<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

13<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.65<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Anthony Gordon<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Newcastle United<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

10<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.31<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Harry Kane<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Bayern Munich<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

8<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.19<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Gabriel Martinelli<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Arsenal<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

6<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

1.14<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Gorka Guruzeta<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Athletic Club<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

0.96<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Marcus Rashford<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Barcelona<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

5<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

0.93<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

\n

Erling Braut H\u00e5land<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

Manchester City<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

7<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

\n

0.91<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Noni Madueke got the nod on the left-flank against Everton, but is yet to really impress on that side, while Leandro Trossard is unlikely to be rushed back with Sunday’s EFL Cup Final in mind. So, up against Kasper Hjulmand’s back three, Martinelli is the obvious choice, given that he’ll give makeshift right-wing-back Ernest Poku plenty of problems down die Werkself’s right side. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Viktor Gy\u00f6keres<\/h3>\n

<\/p>\n

Another player who made a telling impact off the bench at the weekend, thereby hoping to be rewarded with a start, is Viktor Gy\u00f6keres. Three days ago, it was Kai Havertz who led the line from the start, potentially as a dry run ahead of the Wembley date with Man City. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In-between however, Gy\u00f6keres is expected to get a chance to stake his claim. The Swede’s last-gasp winner on Saturday took his tally to 16 goals for the season in all competitions, silencing those who were labelling him a flop not so long ago. Across his time at Sporting and now Arsenal, Gy\u00f6keres has ten goals in 15 Champions League appearances, averaging one every 107 minutes. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

He bagged a brace against Atl\u00e9tico Madrid in North London, as well as netting against Inter Milan and Kairat in January during the league phase, so can he pop up with another crucial one on Tuesday? <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After taking a gigantic step towards Premier League glory on Saturday, Arsenal remain on track<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}