Arsenal fans gave Youri Tielemans a taste of Emirates hospitality by hailing the Leicester midfielder as he was taken off in Saturday’s Premier League thriller.
The Gunners ran out 4-2 victors over the Foxes to maintain their 100 per cent start to the season, with Gabriel Jesus the hero for Mikel Arteta’s side. The Brazilian forward struck twice in the first half and picked up two assists on the other side of the interval – for Granit Xhaka then Gabriel Martinelli – while William Saliba’s own-goal and James Maddison’s strike gave the visitors futile hope.
Arsenal were thoroughly dominant in the midfield battle throughout the entertaining contest, with Xhaka a standout performer for the hosts. The Switzerland international certainly came out on top in his duel with Tielemans, which comes as a slight surprise given the latter’s vast quality.
The 25-year-old is highly-regarded by many and has been linked with the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United this summer, with less than one year remaining on his contract at the King Power. But he lasted just over an hour before he was taken off in North London having failed to make his mark on the game.
Fellow Belgian Dennis Praet was sent on in Tielemans’ place by Brendan Rodgers and, as the substitution took place, the Arsenal faithful made their thoughts clear on their club’s reported transfer target. Chants of “you’re gonna play for the Arsenal” could be heard from sections of the Emirates, proving Tielemans is still held in high regard despite his quiet outing on Saturday afternoon.
Meanwhile, despite his side’s two-goal margin of defeat, Rodgers insisted there were positives for Leicester to take back to the East Midlands. “I thought it was a mixed bag in terms of some really good bits of play, but we’ve made mistakes today that have led to their goals,” he told BBC Sport Leicester.
Would you like to see Arsenal sign Youri Tielemans? Have your say in the comments…
Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
“At 2-0, you can either crumble or keep fighting. At half-time, we said we’ve got to keep believing and keep working. We got to 2-1 but on two occasions in the second half we killed our own momentum. It’s a lack of experience from a number of players in our team that aren’t used to the level. You’ve got to look after the ball and certainly in the fourth goal you can see we’ve given it away.”
Rodgers concluded: “It was a mixed bag. The players gave everything. It was an extremely hot day. We were aggressive but obviously have to play a certain way because of the profile of players we have.”
