‘Wow’… Ian Wright amazed by decision Arteta made on 23-year-old Arsenal player against Liverpool

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Ian Wright has admitted that he was amazed by one decision Mikel Arteta made as Arsenal beat Liverpool at the Emirates on Sunday.

The Gunners secured a big win in the Premier League title race, with two second-half goals giving them the three points.

Arsenal were largely dominant throughout. However, they went into the break level after a Gabriel Magalhaes own goal just before half-time.

Ian Wright praises Mikel Arteta for bringing on Jakub Kiwior in Arsenal win

Interestingly, Mikel Arteta decided to make a change at the break, with Jakub Kiwior coming on for Oleksandr Zinchenko.

Kiwior has not exactly stood out since arriving at Arsenal in the 2023 January transfer window. And Zinchenko had played some really nice passes during the first 45 minutes. So some may have been concerned by the change.

But Ian Wright has told Wrighty’s House that that proved to be a really smart decision from the Arsenal manager.

“The substitution of Zinchenko to bring Kiwior on, I’m thinking wow! Because obviously he’s seeing that Jorginho and Rice are doing their stuff and we’re progressing the ball well enough, did we need Zinchenko as well? You might as well get someone solid like Kiwior,” he said.

“And in the end, it felt like that really worked out for us, especially as he’s the one who’s knocking that long ball in. We didn’t need his progression in that moment. I like the way that Mikel just went you know what, Zinchenko off, Kiwior on, bam, you lot just get on with it.”

Defender proved a point with second-half showing

Kiwior actually had a brilliant game once he was introduced. As Wright alluded to, the Poland international provided the assist for the third goal, which was scored by Leandro Trossard in stoppage-time.

And as shown by Whoscored, only Declan Rice made more tackles than the 23-year-old. Obviously, Kiwior was only on the pitch for 45 minutes.

It would have undoubtedly been a completely different challenge had Liverpool had Mohamed Salah lining up on the right of their attack.

But that does not mean that both Kiwior and Zinchenko do not deserve real credit for how well they played given that the pair have both come in for criticism at certain points.