Hard-working Joel Campbell deserves run in the team, says Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta

On the up: Joel Campbell
David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images
James Olley10 November 2015

Mikel Arteta believes Joel Campbell’s maturity in dealing with his spell on the sidelines is now being rewarded with a run in the Arsenal team.

Campbell had been linked with a move from the Gunners after four separate loan spells at Lorient, Real Betis, Olympiakos and Villarreal in the last three years. However, he was drafted into the starting line-up following injuries to Aaron Ramsey, Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for last month’s Capital One Cup defeat at Sheffield Wednesday and has remained in the side ever since.

The 23-year-old scored his first goal for the club in their win at Swansea and Arteta said: “That goal was a reward for the way he trains, the way he prepares himself and the way he has dealt with not being in the team. It’s been top drawer, his attitude, and it was great for him to get that goal.

“You need your players to be ready and to take their opportunity when others are injured and he did that. We knew Joel is capable of that. It makes it difficult to perform at the top level when you are not playing much but you are required to do that whether you play 20 minutes, 30 minutes or the whole game. Hopefully he can keep doing it.”

Whether Campbell retains his place after the international break remains to be seen, especially with Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain targeting a return to action. Campbell was one of several players to struggle as Arsenal were thrashed 5-1 by Bayern Munich in the Champions League last week. Although Arsenal recovered to salvage a draw against Tottenham, their heavy defeat in the Allianz Arena has cast a shadow over their season.

The Gunners need to win their final two Group F matches — the latter against Olympiakos by two goals — and hope Bayern beat the Greek side in order to progress to the last 16. And Arteta, who was still recovering from an ankle injury before returning against Spurs, said: “Bayern are probably the hardest opponents you can face in Europe at the moment. We knew from the game at the Emirates that it would be tough.

“We managed to win at home but they still dominated some aspects of the game. Normally when you don’t control them, you don’t win the game. We managed to do it before but on Wednesday after we conceded the early goal, it became very difficult. You could see that they wanted to keep pressing us, keep dominating the game and we couldn’t make them run enough.

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“They can do it to any team in the world, even Barcelona. They make it impossible for you to get a breather in possession. You try to keep the ball but they regain possession again and always in dangerous areas. So it was hard for us and mentally when you are 3-0 down at half-time, it is a hard one to take. When you are without important players, that makes it even tougher.

“The problem now is that qualification to the next round doesn’t depend just on us. After we lost the first two games, we knew then the situation would be difficult so we still have work to do.”

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