HERE COMES CAPTAIN KIERAN!
Terrific Tierney tipped to have Arsenal armband one day
AS a former arsenal captain, Mikel arteta knows better than most the qualities required for the role and in Kieran Tierney, he believes he has identified the perfect candidate for the future.
Tierney struggled when he first moved to the Gunners from Celtic for £24million in summer 2019, making only 11 appearances before the spring 2020 lockdown as he tried to adapt to a new life while also battling hip and shoulder injuries.
But the 23-year- old has since made huge strides and after a dazzling performance in Saturday’s comfortable victory over West Bromwich albion, arteta revealed he expects Tierney to inherit an armband worn by Frank McLintock, Tony adams and Patrick Vieira, as well as arteta himself from 2014-16.
Pierre-Emerick aubameyang currently has the job, but at 31, he is eight years older than Tierney, leaving the Scot in an excellent position to step in when aubameyang’s time with arsenal comes to an end.
‘He can be arsenal captain as he has the respect and admiration of every member of the staff and every player,’ said arteta. ‘ He does things in a natural way. He is a really shy boy as well but he represents all of the values that we want to instil and are in the DNa of this club.
‘He is so humble. He came to arsenal and it took him a while to adapt. He had a really bad injury and was away from home but he is a natural leader. You see how he behaves on the pitch and when he talks, he says the right things. He is exactly what we are looking for and I am so happy to have him in the team.’
With snow falling at the Hawthorns and the temperature close to freezing, Tierney caught the eye by abandoning the layers and warming up in shorts and a T-shirt.
There was similar substance to his display, capped by a superb opening goal, when Tierney cut inside from the left flank, moved into the penalty area and fired into the far corner with his weaker right foot.
It gave arsenal the perfect platform for victory, as Bukayo Saka doubled the lead by finishing off a superb move worthy of arsene Wenger’s Invincibles, and alexandre Lacazette struck twice in the second half.
arteta was under significant scrutiny prior to the meeting with Chelsea on Boxing Day but the Gunners took that game 3-1 and if they beat Crystal Palace at Emirates Stadium on January 14, it will be four Premier League wins in a row.
It is too soon to say that their problems are behind them, but arteta’s faith in young players is starting to pay off. as well as Tierney, Saka and Emile Smith Rowe were impressive and Pablo Mari was solid at the back.
Tierney said: ‘It’s starting to come together. We are working consistently hard and we haven’t changed anything across the last three games. We want to build wins and points and climb the table, and we’re doing that.’
If the picture is becoming brighter for arsenal, it remains worryingly bleak for West Brom. Leave aside the one eye-catching result of Sam allardyce’s tenure — the 1-1 draw at Liverpool on December 27 — and albion have conceded 12 goals without reply in home matches against aston Villa, Leeds United and arsenal. They end the festive period six points from safety.
allardyce desperately needs ds reinforcements in defence, midfield idith and attack, especially with the albion boss expecting centre tre forward Karlan Grant to be out of action for at least five weeks with ith a broken bone in his foot.
But allardyce’s attempts to improve his squad have already dy run into problems. There are unlikely to be significant funds ds available and to make matters ers more complicated, Brexit has as made it tougher to sign players ers from the European Union.
The United Kingdom’s departure arfrom the EU on December 31 means clubs are no longer able to sign European players under EU rules related to free movement of labour. These players will now ow require a governing body endorsement seith in order to be eligible, with a range of criteria including international erhe caps and strength of the player’s domestic esed league used to make a decision.
During his time at Sunderland ertal and Crystal Palace, allardyce yce was able to make ake key signings such ch as Lamine Kone ne and Luka Milivojevic voim to help him steer those clubs to safety.
allardyce said: ‘I’ve found three ree players already who would have ave been capable of coming here and nd they’re not allowed. It’s a shame. me.
‘I won’t name the players but ut they would have been a big help. lp. Due to the new situation in terms ms of the permits they were unable ble to come to this country so I have ave to look at that everywhere I can an now and say “can he qualify?”.
‘We can make one loan signing ng in this country and two worldwide, ldto but this change related to the Brexit deal makes life difficult ult for the two worldwide loans we have available to us.’ WEST BROM (4-1-4-1): Johnstone 7; Furlong 5, Ajayi 6, Ivanovic 5 (Bartley 66min, 6), O’Shea 6; Sawyers 5; Phillips 5 (Harper 81), Gallagher 5, Pereira 6, Diangana 5 (Austin, 46, 6); Robinson 6.
Subs not used: Button, Gibbs, Grosicki, Krovinovic, Peltier, Diaby. Booked: Gallagher. Manager: Sam Allardyce 5. ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Leno 6.5; Bellerin 7 (Maitland-Niles 54, 6), Holding 7, Mari 7,
TIERNEY 8.5; Ceballos 8, Xhaka 7; Saka 8 (Willian 71, 6), Smith Rowe 8 (Willock 78), Aubameyang 6.5; Lacazette 7.5.
Subs not used: Runarsson, Pepe, Luiz, Elneny, Nketiah, Martinelli. Scorers: Tierney 23, Saka 28, Lacazette 60, 64. Booked: Bellerin, Ceballos.
Manager: Mikel Arteta 7.5. Referee: Martin Atkinson 7.