Mikel Arteta has revealed Ethan Nwaneri was "really fatigued" following Arsenal’s draw with Nottingham Forest.
Nwaneri once again started alongside Leandro Trossard and Mikel Merino in an injury-hit attack for the Gunners, but couldn’t find the spark that inspired turned one point into three late on against Leicester City earlier in the month.
Instead, Arsenal were held to a goalless draw at the City Ground which coupled up with the defeat to West Ham at the weekend means they have dropped five points in their last two games.
Despite chasing an elusive goal, Nwaneri was substituted with just over 10 minutes to play against Forest as Raheem Sterling - just as was the case against the Hammers - sent on in his place but to no avail.
Given the 17-year-old is arguably Arsenal’s most in-form attacker at the moment, the decision to take him off raised a few eyebrows amongst supporters.
Though, Arteta has made it clear that he is protecting Nwaneri from a fresh injury setback after the youngster missed a couple weeks of action with a hamstring issue sustained in the 1-1 draw against Brighton at the beginning of the year.
“He was cramping from minute 45, so we stretched him as much as we possibly could but we cannot lose the player and he was really fatigued,” the Arsenal manager told reporters.
Arteta has also revealed the reason for Riccardo Calafiori’s substitution at half-time was to ensure his side were not reduced to 10-men in successive Premier League games.
Calafiori was handed a start against Forest in place of the suspended Myles Lewis-Skelly and had quite an eventful first-half.
Booked inside three minutes, he hit the post with a fine strike and then had penalty shout against him waved away after Callum Hudson-Odoi went down.
“I took him because he got a yellow in the second minute,” Arteta said when explaining the Calafiori substitution. “He had one or two situations defending Hudson-Odoi and we couldn’t not play again with 10 men.”
