Mikel Arteta has reportedly admitted to regret a key decision he made earlier this season that has come back to haunt Arsenal.
Many thought that Arsenal may finally win the Premier League this year after placing second to Manchester City the previous two seasons.
But Liverpool won the league title last week with four games remaining, and the Gunners ultimately fell far short.
In the early weeks of the season, Arteta has already lamented refereeing calls that went against his team. However, his side have also suffered injuries, and he believes one specific setback has cost them dearly.
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After regaining his best form, Gabriel Jesus sustained a season-ending knee injury in January during Arsenal’s FA Cup penalty shootout loss to Manchester United.
According to the Daily Mail, Arteta has stated that he wished he had replaced the Brazilian striker sooner in the match.
Asked on the Men in Blazers podcast if he had made any mistakes that he would like to change if he could, Arteta replied: “Possibly yes. It’s very difficult to understand that, but if I could pause the game and say ‘Gabriel Jesus, we brought you back to life, you are doing incredibly well, you’re now going to get injured’, I would say ‘stop, we are going to swap him, bring another player in and continue to play the game’.
“Unfortunately we cannot do this. It is not like VAR where we can overturn the decisions like this. The decision is made there is no way back.”
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