Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Kieran Tierney’s early substitution against Nurnberg was planned, allaying fears of an injury.
The left-back after taken off after just half an hour, with the Gunners 2-0 down, to be replaced by Cedric Soares.
Commentators on Arsenal’s official coverage of the pre-season friendly suggested at half-time that Tierney may have been injured, but Arteta after the game insisted otherwise.
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Arteta:
“[The match] was a bit of a puzzle because some players could only play certain minutes.”
“Kieran, for example, could only play 30 minutes and we wanted to give him the first 30 to have a good warm up after such a long time.
“Others only 45, others again 30. So they go by what we needed.”
The Gunners ran out 5-3 winners in Germany, with all five of their goals coming in the second half.
New signing Gabriel Jesus scored the first and last goals, taking just 90 seconds to open his account.
