Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta was pleased again by what he saw from Italy international Riccardo Calafiori during Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League on Wednesday night: ‘That’s why we signed him.’
Calafiori, who overcame a minor injury scare to claim a place in the Arsenal starting line-up, played the full 90 minutes as the North Londoners picked up a 2-0 win over Gianluigi Donnarumma’s PSG at the Emirates on Tuesday night.
He again lined up at left-back in a flat back four with regular centre-backs Gabriel and William Saliba starting through the middle.
Calafiori had 52 touches of the ball on the night, completed 100% of the five tackles that he attempted, and also completed five passes into the final third.
For his efforts, Calafiori came away with an average rating of 7.5 from the British press.
Arteta: ‘That’s why we signed Calafiori’
Explaining why he was so pleased with the Italian’s performance again, Arteta said: “He has the capacity to occupy different spaces, he’s really comfortable with that, he’s already done that in Italy and that’s why we signed him.
“First of all, he’s a great defender, he has this presence and energy and full commitment in the reaction that he does and he’s really brave. He doesn’t care in those situations, he wants the ball, he wants to make things happen with it and is happy to play in different roles.”
I think Calafiori did chose well to go under Arteta there, it is to the benefit of the Italian national team for him to be there right now, however, if he wants to achieve Nesta level, Arsenal must start winning things or him to move somewhere like Real Madrid.