Mikel Arteta reveals plan to ‘psychologically assess’ Arsenal’s World Cup stars after painful exits

Mikel Arteta has revealed plans to ‘psychologically assess’ Arsenal’s stars following several painful exits in .

Arsenal had 10 players fly out to Qatar for the World Cup and four of them are still in action ahead of the quarter-finals.

That includes Brazil star – with his country facing Croatia on Friday – as well as France’s William Saliba plus England duo and Aaron Ramsdale as Les Bleus take on the Three Lions on Saturday.

Brazil striker Gabriel Jesus with injury and in a huge blow to the Gunners.

Ben White returned home from England’s  campaign in  due to personal reasons, although new reports suggest he fell out with assistant boss Steve Holland.

Thomas Partey’s World Cup is also over after Ghana were eliminated in the group stages following defeat to Uruguay in their third match.

United States goalkeeper Matt Turner is no longer involved either after the Americans lost to the Netherlands in the last 16.

Granit Xhaka and Takehiro Tomiyasu suffered perhaps the most painful exits – with Switzerland thumped 6-1 by Portugal and Japan beaten on penalties by Croatia.

Tomiyasu to Arsenal after Japan’s crushing last 16 defeat, , while after the Swiss’ humiliation.

‘First we’ll assess them and see how they are psychologically and physically after the tournament they’ve had,’ Arteta told Arsenal’s .

‘Some of them are still disappointed with some of the results.

‘Then we’ll try to get them back as quickly as possible in the rhythm and routine they’re used to, to start performing again.’

Arteta put out an experimental side as Arsenal smashed French side Lyon 3-0 in a friendly on Thursday – using first-team regulars in the first-half before making 10 changes after the break and handing opportunities to a number of youngsters.

‘From the beginning, the performance, the application and the quality that we showed was really good,’ Arteta added.

‘But I’m not surprised because I’ve seen them train every day and the way they trained here yesterday so I’m really happy. We play to win and today we won and played really well.’