Like everyone, Mikel Arteta did not expect the absence of Ousmane Dembélé for the Arsenal / PSG match on Tuesday evening. Obviously good news for the Spanish coach of the Gunners.
The information took all the editorial offices in France and England by surprise. Ousmane Dembélé will not play in the Arsenal/PSG clash despite his very good start to the season and the fact that he is neither injured nor suspended. According to initial information from L’Equipe, Luis Enrique had a heated exchange with his player after PSG’s 3-1 victory against Rennes on Friday and decided to do without him against Arsenal for disciplinary reasons.
Nobody knows at this stage what the two men really said to each other, but the French international was left out of the group of 22 players called by the Spanish coach for the second day of the Champions League. Present at a press conference this Monday morning, a few minutes after the revelation of Dembélé’s absence in the press, Mikel Arteta expressed his astonishment.
“We prepared to face PSG with Dembélé”
“We got the information just before the press conference. I don’t know if it’s true or not. We will prepare as usual, considering all possibilities. We’ll see, they have a lot of other options.”confided the Spanish coach, who also raised the subject on Canal+.
“I didn’t know, I heard the news just before the press conference, Arteta said. It’s a surprise. I don’t know what happened. We had prepared to face PSG with him, because he is a key player for them. But they have plenty of other options. He is dangerous, he is capable of doing unexpected things to create these “magic moments”. So we’ll see if he’s actually absent. »
If PSG will be deprived of Dembélé, five players are however returning to the Parisian group: Gianluigi Donnarumma, Vitinha, Marco Asensio, Désiré Doué and Nuno Mendes. On the Gunners side, two players are uncertain on the eve of the match: full-backs Ben White and Riccardo Calafiori.
