"Intelligence, courage, adaptability" – Arteta bigs up his new full-backs

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Mikel Arteta was effusive in his praise of full-backs Jurrien Timber and Riccardo Calafiori as Arsenal gear up for tomorrow’s Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain.

Sidelined by ACL surgery just weeks after completing his move from Ajax, Timber spent the majority of his first year recovering in the gym before returning to the pitch on the final day of the season.

While the 23-year-old picked up a knock in pre-season and started the opening game of the new campaign on the bench, Timber has since been a fixture in the team starting six Premier League games in a row. Most impressively, he’s split his time between the left and right-back slots, looking very able in both.

Facing the media ahead in his pre-PSG press conference, Arteta was asked about Timber’s presence in the dressing room.

He said: “A leader, a guy that is constantly thinking, how can I help others, bringing unbelievable energy and commitment to everything that he does in the very little time that he’s been with us, and especially with the amount of time he has spent on the pitch, for everybody to speak so highly of him, to respect him and look at him in the way that they do, it tells you the story of the kind of personality we have in that team.”

Arteta has said previously that Timber was closely involved with the first team last season even though he couldn’t be on the pitch. He explained again why he felt that was important.

“Well, it’s just getting in his shoes, you know. He comes from Ajax, he was the captain there, a big move, different country. He comes here with his expectations, it starts really well and he gets injured in the first game.

“And then what? You know, you have to look ahead, eight, nine, ten, twelve months maybe, a difficult period. And if you are disconnected to the team, you can feel very lonely and far from the expectations that you had. And this can be very disappointing and very difficult to handle personally and emotionally.

“He did completely the opposite. He started to build unbelievable relationships, he started with the physios, with the team-mates, he started to gather all the information about how we were playing.

“He was in every meeting and that really helped him to develop himself as a person, but as well to understand what we wanted in a much better way and be prepared when he was back.”

In the last 10 days, Arsenal’s defence has had a new look to it with Timber and summer signing Riccardo Calafiori lining up next to last season’s regular centre-back pairing Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba. While it sounds like the Italian defender may have to sit out tomorrow’s game with a rumoured knee injury, Arteta likes what he’s seen from his full-backs.

“They are two players that have, first of all, the football brain, the intelligence, the courage, the quality and the adaptability to occupy different spaces, both attacking and defending, and that gives the team a different flow, different dynamic, very unpredictable for the opponent to defend certain ways. And both huge personalities to play, which I love.

“They have to have one in common, that they have to love defending first, because they are defenders, and after that, every quality that we add is great.

“But as well, playing full backs [on their] natural foot, especially when we play inverted attacking midfielders and wingers many times, for the flow of those units it’s incredibly important and you could see that at the weekend as well.”

On Calafiori’s personality, he added: [I love] How willing he is. The moment I spoke with him on the phone the first time, he wanted to come here, he understood what we wanted straight away, and he felt that he was going to be a perfect fit here. And he was!

“He landed, big smile on his face, he’s got this energy, this aura around him, that is very likeable. And then he’s a fighter, he’s a player that wants to play in the way that we want to play, and he will do anything for the team. Straight away, when you have those qualities, I think a lot of things have to be wrong not to succeed.”

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