Arsenal’s Arteta hails ‘consistent’ full-backs Gibbs and Jenkinson

Mikel Arteta has heaped praise on Kieran Gibbs and Carl Jenkinson following the Arsenal pair’s solid start to the season.

Jenkinson is deputising for injured right-back Bacary Sagna, while Gibbs has made the left-back position his own of late following Gael Clichy’s departure last summer.

Both Jenkinson and Gibbs have started all five of Arsenal’s games so far this season, and Arteta has hailed the pair’s consistency after Arsene Wenger’s men continued their unbeaten start to the new campaign with a 2-1 victory at Montpellier on Tuesday night.

“They’ve been very consistent. I think Gibbs has been playing really well,” Arteta told Arsenal Player. “I think he’s finding himself more comfortable going forwards. He’s rapid and can make a big difference. It’s tough for a wide man to defend [against] a full back like him.

“Carl is finding himself more comfortable. He’s had four or five games under his belt, he’s done a whole pre-season with us and you can see he’s confident. Against Montpellier he put a brilliant cross in for Gervinho to score the goal.

“That’s what we need because we’re missing players. When you’re replacing someone like Bacary [Sagna] it’s not easy because you’re under a lot of pressure. I think they’ve been really good.

“The challenge is to maintain the level and to keep up to the high level. I think that’s very difficult, but Carl’s done that in the last few games and hopefully he can maintain that.”