Arsenal boss Arteta admits Tierney and Xhaka combo 'still growing'

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Arsenal boss Arteta admits Tierney and Xhaka combo 'still growing'

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta admits he'd like to see Kieran Tierney overlap more.

Tierney appears to have pulled back given Granit Xhaka's more advanced midfield role.

Arteta said: "He has to overlap when there is a moment to overlap and he has to become unpredictable and efficient every time he's in the final third in positions where his qualities can decide football matches. That's what we have to try to do as much as possible.

"It's growing because the more they experience match situations and training situations together, that chemistry and that understanding and those timings and those spaces will click more naturally, and I think this is happening.

"I wouldn't say that it would make comfortable, but sometimes you have to take players from their comfort zone and open a different door to explore how the team will react to it and what the opposition will do when you do certain things, and then it's more unpredictable because if not, it becomes pretty easy to prepare the same thing against the same opposition."