Mikel Arteta has described Chido Obi-Martin’s move from Arsenal to Manchester United describing as ‘very unfortunate’.
Arsenal will head to Old Trafford on Sunday with the hope of winning to keep their Premier League title hopes alive.
The Gunners are 13 points behind table toppers Liverpool, although with a game in hand.
United have been poor in front of goal and the terrible form of centre-forwards Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee has given Obi-Martin a chance in the first-team.
The 17-year-old was tipped to be the next big thing at the Emirates thanks to his scoring prowess in Arsenal’s academy before moving to United.
After recently making his senior debut, the young striker will likely face his former club on Sunday.
Asked about Obi-Martin’s exit, Arteta suggested in his pre-match press conference on Friday that he would like to have held on to the striker.
“I wasn’t too involved in that decision. When a player decides the best pathway is to leave there’s not much you can do,” the Spaniard stated.
“Very unfortunate because we want to keep our players from the academy and to be very successful with the first-team but in this case we were unable to do that.”
Arsenal have dominated recent league meetings with United, winning their last four contests.
United, however, knocked Arsenal out on penalties in the FA Cup at the Emirates this season.
When asked about United’s ability to pull a result out of the bag when many have written them off, Arteta said:“There’s a history of that at the football club – the players they have, the club that they have.
“Watching the [Europa League] game last night against Real Sociedad, it became very clear that they’re very capable of putting a really strong performance in and beat you on the day. We know the difficulty of the match and that’s what we’re preparing for.”
