{"id":330138,"date":"2026-05-06T14:08:37","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:38:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=330138"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:08:37","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T08:38:37","slug":"wesley-sneijder-blasts-50m-arsenal-star-after-reaching-champions-league-final-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/wesley-sneijder-blasts-50m-arsenal-star-after-reaching-champions-league-final-football\/","title":{"rendered":"Wesley Sneijder blasts \u00a350m Arsenal star after reaching Champions League final | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t\t<\/div><figcaption>Wesley Sneijder claims Ben White just isn&#8217;t fit to lace Jurrien Timber\u2019s boots (Ziggo Sport)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Wesley Sneijder took aim at Ben White as Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid to succeed in the Champions League final on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta\u2019s side are within the Champions League final for the primary time since 2006 as Bukayo Saka\u2019s goal on the stroke of half-time sealed a 1-0 win against Atletico on the Emirates Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal will meet either Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich, who play the second leg of their Champions League semi-final on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Sneijder, meanwhile, highlighted the absence of Jurrien Timber, who has missed Arsenal\u2019s last 11 games because of a groin injury, and claims Arteta will struggle to win the Champions League because of an absence of squad depth.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018You&#8217;ve gotten Timber in your squad, and you think that, \u2018that\u2019s a great full-back, he\u2019s going to assist me\u2019. Then he drops out for a very long time after which you may have to slot in White\u2026 Timber wouldn\u2019t even let him tie his shoelaces,\u2019 Sneijder told Ziggo Sport.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"430\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_295967763-9dc6.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28254711\" alt=\"LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 5: Mikel Arteta manager of Arsenal celebrates with Ben White of Arsenal after their sides victory during the UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Semi Final Second Leg match between Arsenal FC and Atletico de Madrid at Arsenal Stadium on May 5, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Gaspafotos\/MB Media\/Getty Images)\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Ben White has deputised at right-back with Jurrien Timber out with a groin injury (MB Media\/Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018Arteta cannot field two squads, other teams can. So I don\u2019t think that&#8217;s justified.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u2018For years, you may have had Liverpool and City in England that you may have to compete against. They&#8217;ve significantly better players. And in Europe, there are various even higher players. He [Arteta] is solely doing a formidable job together with his team.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at half-time, Sneijder was lower than impressed with what he saw within the opening 45 minutes on the Emirates.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I said after 35 minutes that UEFA must intervene,\u2019 Sneijder said throughout the break.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"431\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SEI_296000946-39be.jpg?quality=90&#038;strip=all&#038;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-28254731\" alt=\"LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 05: Mikel Arteta, Manager of Arsenal, celebrates progressing to the final of the UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 with Noni Madueke and Declan Rice of Arsenal after the team's victory in the UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Semi Final Second Leg match between Arsenal FC and Atletico de Madrid at Arsenal Stadium on May 05, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images)\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\">\t<\/div><figcaption>Wesley Sneijder believes Mikel Arteta \u2018deserves a statue\u2019 for his impact at Arsenal (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018They should call London, \u2018just get off the pitch, each of you, and the ultimate can be played tomorrow\u2019. We knew this was going to occur. Atletico in a block, dropping back, and Arsenal having a whole lot of possession.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>But following Arsenal\u2019s victory, Sneijder heaped praise on Arteta for guiding Arsenal to the ultimate in Budapest on May 30.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I can\u2019t say it often enough, people, but he really deserves a statue already,\u2019 Sneijder said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018With this team, it&#8217;s so impressive to succeed in the ultimate. Leaving all the opposite world-class teams behind you. I believe that may be very impressive.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the most recent news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"><br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sportmetro\">Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/metrosportuk\/\">Instagram<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Arsenal consider shock summer move for Man Utd star after Kobbie Mainoo approach<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Vincent Kompany responds to Mikel Arteta \u2018different worlds\u2019 comment<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"><\/use><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Bukayo Saka knows \u2018deep down\u2019 who Arsenal wish to play in Champions League final<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"><\/use><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wesley Sneijder claims Ben White just isn&#8217;t fit to lace Jurrien Timber\u2019s boots (Ziggo Sport) Wesley Sneijder took aim at Ben White as Arsenal beat Atletico Madrid to succeed in the Champions League final on Tuesday night. Mikel Arteta\u2019s side are within the Champions League final for the primary time since 2006 as Bukayo Saka\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":330139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20686],"tags":[4263,2605,2315,5941,1499,5479,622,12526,51392,795,13803],"class_list":["post-330138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-50m","tag-arsenal","tag-blasts","tag-champions","tag-final","tag-football","tag-league","tag-reaching","tag-sneijder","tag-star","tag-wesley"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330138"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330138\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330141,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330138\/revisions\/330141"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}