Bukayo Saka has 41 starts in all competitions so far this season, Ben White has 40 and Martin Odegaard 39. Last season, Saka made 42 starts and Odegaard and White had 39 a piece. That virtuous triangle stationed on the right of the Arsenal team has been a consistent corner stone of the last two seasons.
In 2022-23, Gabriel Martinelli started 40 games on the left wing, Granit Xhaka made 43 starts, all as a left eight and Zinchenko started 28 games at left-back. While Zinchenko’s fitness meant he could not match Ben White’s numbers at right-back, Arsenal’s left side still had a consistency to it that has not been matched in this campaign.
Xhaka started 37 Premier League games in the left eight position, while Martinelli started 36 on the left wing- only missing the final two games of the season. This season, Kai Havertz, Declan Rice, Emile Smith Rowe, Fabio Vieira and Leandro Trossard have all started league games as a ‘left eight’. Martinelli has started 29 games on the left wing with Trossard, Jesus and Reiss Nelson all getting Premier League starts on that flank.
At left-back, the picture has shifted too but not into a settled groove. Zinchenko has 24 starts and 11 sub appearances, Jakub Kiwior has 17 starts (16 of them at left-back) and 10 sub appearances and Takehiro Tomiyasu has 11 starts and 14 sub appearances. Jurien Timber started the opening Premier League fixture at left-back.
In Kiwior, Tomiyasu and Zinchenko, Arsenal have three left-backs who have different attributes but none of them offer the absolute solid gold all-round game possessed by Ben White, for example. That Arsenal have fielded different left-backs in each of their last three games could be considered an example of depth and flexibility and that is true, but what it demonstrates the most is that Arteta does not have the ‘game for your life’ player there.
I listed the number of sub appearances for the left-backs because Arsenal very often sub their left-back. Zinchenko and…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/04/to-the-left/
Author : Tim Stillman
Publish date : 2024-04-19 12:00:59
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