Arteta hails reborn Willian after early Arsenal struggles

Carlo Garganese

• Updated: 17 May 2021 18:06 BST
• 1 min read

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has hailed summer signing Willian and believes the Brazilian veteran is now starting to show his true ability.

The 32-year-old arrived at the Emirates last summer on a free transfer after his contract expired at Chelsea.

He endured a miserable first half to the season – and has still failed to score for his new club.

However, Willian has shown some improvements in his last two matches – providing an assist in the Europa League win over Benfica and setting up another goal in Sunday’s victory over Leicester City.

“He is a player who we all like,” Arteta said.

“His team-mates like him and we were expecting many more things from him since he joined but for many different reasons he hasn’t found his best performances.

“But hopefully Thursday’s performance gave him the platform and belief that he is a really important player – he is a player I really like and I did a lot to bring him in and hopefully he can still give us more.

“He totally deserves some credit because of the way he trains every day and he is trying.

“In games now you can see that he is starting to produce what we think he can do for the team so everyone has to step up and create big moments in games because the front players in the end have to be the ones that decide the game for us.”

Arsenal beat Leicester 3-1 at the King Power Stadium.