The Gunners have since improved defensively, with their shift to playing a back-four formed of natural centre-backs aiding their cause, but Arteta will certainly be mindful of how his side fared on a torrid evening at Liverpool three years ago.
White hasn’t forgotten about how Jota caused Arsenal heaps of problems that evening, recently naming the playmaker as one of his trickiest opponents when speaking to Sky Sports. He said: “Jota, really good. When you play against him, you don’t realise how quick he is, strong, he’s obviously technically really, really good.”
The defender will have learned plenty from that drubbing at the hands of Liverpool, and he will be keen to right the wrongs of that performance alongside Gabriel if deployed at centre-back by his manager.
