Former Arsenal academy left-back Lino Sousa has explained why he left the Gunners for Aston Villa in the January transfer window.

Ex-Arsenal academy defender Lino Sousa left the Gunners for Aston Villa in the January transfer window, joining Unai Emery’s Premier League side on a permanent deal before moving out on loan to Plymouth Argyle.

Sousa had spent a couple of years with Arsenal after joining from West Bromwich Albion, in which he’d largely featured for the team’s u21 side.

Though Sousa received a couple of first-team call-ups under Mikel Arteta, including January’s FA Cup match against Liverpool, he never made it onto the pitch for his competitive debut.

Speaking to the media this week, Sousa explained that a desire for first-team football was behind his motivation to leave the club.

“I wanted to get out and play first team football, whether that was at Arsenal or elsewhere,” Sousa revealed.

“I felt as if Villa provided me the right platform and the right plan to go ahead and do that, so that’s why I made that conscious decision to leave.

“When I was signing with Aston Villa there was always the idea of me going out on loan. Where to, it wasn’t quite concrete.

“When I signed for Villa, I signed papers for Argyle as well. Everything happened so quickly. I came down the same day and then I met the manager the next day and was in for training.”

Sousa has since made his Championship debut for Plymouth Argyle, coming on as a substitute against Swansea City and Sunderland before making his first start against Coventry City on Wednesday.

The defender played 61 minutes at wing-back for Plymouth in midweek, with the game ending in a 2-2 draw.

The left-back pathway at Arsenal is relatively congested, with Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu appearing to have long-term futures at the club, and Jakub Kiwior filling that role when the other two are out.

Sousa failing to get any minutes at Arsenal, even during the left-back injury crises Arteta has faced at times this season, evidently convinced him to move on.

Whether Sousa will have any more luck breaking into the first-team at Aston Villa, it’s hard to say.