‘Incredibly good’: Mikel Arteta absolutely blown away by one Arsenal player vs Wolves

Add as preferred source on Google

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta heaped praise on Rob Holding after his brilliant cameo off the bench against Wolves last night.

The Englishman, 26, dropped out of the starting lineup yesterday. Cedric Soares replaced him and Ben White returned to his natural centre-half position.

Bringing Holding on was probably not in Arteta’s plans but Gabriel Martinelli’s red card changed things. The Arsenal boss threw the centre-back on and he was brilliant.

Holding was dominant in the air, led the backline well and didn’t put a foot wrong in his 19 minutes on the pitch. Some Arsenal fans feel he deserved the Man of the Match award and Arteta agrees.

• WHAT AARON RAMSDALE DID AFTER THE CAMERAS TURNED OFF AT FULL-TIME ON MOLINEUX PITCH

Mikel Arteta: Arsenal beat Wolves thanks to Rob Holding

The Gunners boss said in his press conference after the game, as per Arsenal.com: “Today, he (Holding) deserves a lot of credit.

“He was on the bench, he was ready to help. His attitude, his commitment to the team whether he plays every week or plays one minute, it’s incredibly good.

“He’s a really good influence for the rest. Today, he really helped the team, the way he defended the box made a huge difference.

“Thanks to him we won the game.”

• ‘JUST SO GOOD’: YANNICK BOLASIE BLOWN AWAY BY ONE ARSENAL PLAYER AFTER FIRST-HALF VS WOLVES

TBR View:

Holding was only on the pitch for 19 minutes but he was absolutely brilliant.

The 26-year-old registered nine clearances, blocked a shot, intercepted a pass, won every single one of his aerial duels and wasn’t dispossessed once in the entire game. (SofaScore) He was almost flawless and without him, Arsenal probably would’ve ended up conceding an equaliser.

It will be interesting to see what happens with Holding in the summer. The Englishman is clearly not Arteta’s first-choice at the back and he could drop further down the pecking order when William Saliba comes back from his loan spell.

Arsenal may well entertain an offer if one arrives for Holding in the summer and performances like last night’s will only increase his transfer value, which is a good thing for the Gunners.

• ‘BIG UPGRADE’: ARSENAL FANS URGE EDU TO SIGN ‘FANTASTIC’ £35M PL STAR FOLLOWING REPORT