Mikel Arteta doesn't 'trust' his Arsenal side fully as Chris Sutton makes squad faith claim

Chris Sutton has accused Mikel Arteta of not fully trusting his Arsenal side.

The Gunners are currently fighting it out with Liverpool and Manchester City at the top of the English Premier League as they fight it out for the title, despite having a smaller squad of players to choose from. In their recent Champions League match against Porto, the North London outfit suffered a 1-0 defeat. They didn't manage to get a single shot on target and conceded a goal in the final minute of added on time.

During the match, Arteta only made one substitution, replacing Leandro Trossard with Jorginho in the second half. This follows a pattern seen throughout the campaign. In comparison, Liverpool has made 215 changes to their starting line-up in their 39 games this season, while City has made 160 changes in the same number of matches. Arteta, on the other hand, has only made 99 changes in 36 games, preferring to stick with his core group of players.

Speaking on the It's All Kicking Off podcast, Sutton said: "I take your point about the subs and Mikel Arteta not using as many as Manchester City and Liverpool. I suppose with Liverpool, they've had so many injuries anyway, but it comes down to having faith in the squad.

"That probably tells you a fair bit about Mikel Arteta's mindset that he doesn't trust everybody implicitly. Hence why, come the summer, we should probably expect to see him move in the market and try and get his squad strength up."

Arteta was angry in his post-match interview in Portugal. He was frustrated by the number of fouls Porto committed but conceded his side hadn't been aggressive enough in their approach. Arsenal will be back in action this coming weekend when they face Newcastle and Sutton insists the jury