Jorginho was taken off at half-time of Arsenal’s 4-0 win over Everton at the Emirates on Wednesday and replaced with Ghanaian midfielder, Partey
By Kehinde Okeowo
Arsenal boss, Mikel Arteta has justified his decision to take Jorginho off at half-time of Arsenal’s 4-0 emphatic win over Everton at the Emirates on Wednesday night.
The Gunners after thrashing the Toffees, who defeated them by a lone goal in the reverse fixture at Goodison Park moved 5 points clear of nearest rivals, Manchester City.
Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard scored the opening and the third goals respectively, while Gabriel Martinelli also netted a brace to earn Arsenal the well-deserved 3 points.
Jorginho started the game ahead of Thomas Partey, however, the Italian international was withdrawn during the break, with Partey taking his place for the second period.
Arteta, speaking about why the former Napoli man did not resume with his teammates in the second period, said he wasn’t feeling great after the first 45 minutes.
He said: “I am really happy as it was the game we had in hand against an opponent that we knew would make life really difficult for us. We experienced that at Goodison.
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“We started the game with some frustration and not really understanding what we had to do and allowed them to run in certain transitions. But after 25 minutes we started to get much better and the timing of the two goals was key.
“We needed a magic moment there. And Alex (Zinchenko) produced that. And then the team grew especially with Thomas (Partey) as Jorg(inho) was not feeling good today.”
He went on to say when Partey came on, he gave the team the needed stability and made the second half better.
“When he came on he really gave some presence and some stability to the team and I think the second half was superb” Arteta added.