Mikel Arteta explains why he played Celtic-bound Kieran Tierney in Arsenal’s draw with Nottingham Forest

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Kieran Tierney is biding his time as an Arsenal player right now.

The left-back is waiting until summer to make his incredible return to Celtic after signing a pre-contract in January.

Of course the decision to remain at the Emirates beyond the January window was taken out of Tierney’s hands when Arsenal’s plan was laid bare as manager Mikel Arteta seemingly did not want to leave himself short in that position.

The Spaniard has barely acknowledged Tierney in terms of game time with the Scotland cap spending the vast majority of his time on the bench or the stands following his loan stint at Real Sociedad last year.

That is another reason Brendan Rodgers wanted Tierney in the door last month but the deal was not sanctioned by Arteta.

The Arsenal manager opted – somewhat surprisingly – to bring KT onto the pitch in his side’s goalless draw with high-flying Nottingham Forest earlier this week.

It was a disappointing result for the North London club who still harbour ambitions of catching Liverpool in the Premier League title race despite the 13-point gap.

The same gap between clubs as has been opened up by Celtic ahead of rivals Rangers in the Scottish Premiership.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	CelticCeltic	28	23	3	2	82	15	67	72
2	RangersRangers	28	18	5	5	58	24	34	59
3	AberdeenAberdeen	28	12	5	11	36	44	-8	41
4	HibernianHibernian	28	10	10	8	42	39	3	40
5	Dundee UtdDundee Utd	28	11	7	10	34	34	0	40
6	Heart Of MidlothianHeart Of Midlothian	28	10	6	12	40	38	2	36

• READ MORE: Lennon Miller breaks silence on Celtic January transfer efforts as ‘that takes care of itself’

Mikel Arteta reveals why he brought Kieran Tierney on for Arsenal

Now, though, Arteta has revealed to supporters why he decided to bring Tierney into the action despite his lack of full match fitness.

And the ex-Ibrox midfielder explained how it was more about the fading Riccardo Calafiori who had already been booked in the game than it was about Tierney.

Asked why he took Calafiori off – and therefore brought Tierney on – Arteta said, via Arsenal.com: “I took him (off) because he got a yellow in the second minute.

“He had one or two situations defending Callum Hudson-Odoi and we couldn’t not play again with 10 men.”

Tierney Celtic pre-contract is already in place

Arsenal had played their previous fixture with 10 men after youngster Myles Lewis-Skelly had been shown a red card.

That came after VAR intervention. In that game Calafiori also was replaced but it was Oleksandr Zinchenko who arrived on the scene ahead of Tierney.

Against Forest at the City Ground, Tierney almost netted what would have been a brilliant winning goal from a set-piece.

A corner was floated in from the right-hand side and the 27-year-old rose highest only to see his header sail desperately wide of the far post.