Mikel Arteta has admitted that he regrets an important decision he made earlier this season that came back to chase Arsenal.
After he was second behind Manchester City in each of the last two seasons, many believed that this could finally be the year of Arsenal to win the Premier League.
The Gunners, however, have fallen well, with Liverpool completing the title with four games last week.
Arteta has previously received conviction decisions that entered the opening weeks of the campaign against his side, but his team was also struck by injuries and he believes that a certain setback has been expensive.
Gabriel Jesus sustained a seasonal knee injury in Arsenal's FA Cup-Penalty Shootout defeat by Manchester United in January after his return to his best form, and Arteta revealed that he wanted the Brazilian striker to replace in the game earlier.
Asked about the podcast in blazers if he had made mistakes that he would like to change if he could, Arteta replied: 'Possibly yes. It is very difficult to understand that, but if I could pause the game and say: “Gabriel Jesus, we brought you back to life, you are doing incredibly well, you are going to get injured now”, I would say, “Stop, we are going to trade him, insert another player and keep playing the game”.
“Unfortunately we can't do this. It is not like VAR where we can destroy the decisions such as these. The decision is made is no way back. '
Jesus had scored six goals in so many matches prior to his injury, but has been out of operation for the past four months and will not return to the last phases of 2025.
Only a month after Jesus injured his knee, Kai Havertz tore his hamstring during a training camp with warm weather in Dubai, so that Arsenal is left without a recognized striker after she chose not to dive into the transfer market in January.
Arteta is forced to push Mikel Merino into an attack and the Spaniard stepped to score six goals after his change of position.
However, goals were sometimes hard to find without Jesus or Havertz at the top, and Arsenal looked particularly toothless in the last third during their 1-0 defeat by PSG last week.
Tonight they get the chance of redemption in Paris, because they offer to make their first Champions League final in 19 years, but will again have to rely on the use of an improvised center Vooruit after losing Jesus and Havertz to injury.