Arsenal have one-of-a-kind star causing chaos to help fire title bid | OneFootball

Hard works pays off as resurgent Gunners ace flourishes in unique role under Mikel Arteta

After a difficult first year at Arsenal, there was a “fire” inside Riccardo Calafiori when he returned for pre-season.

Calafiori’s full focus was to ensure that he made his mark this year, and that is why he began pre-season early.

The 23-year-old was one of several Arsenal players, including fellow defenders Gabriel and William Saliba, who headed to Marbella in June.

It was there that they were put through their paces by the club’s lead physical performance coach Sam Wilson, before pre-season officially started.

“Last season wasn’t easy, but I came back this summer with a fire inside me,” Calafiori told the magazine Versus. “I couldn’t wait to start again.

“Last season, they (Arsenal fans) only saw a little of what I can do. I want to show much more this year. I want fans to see my personality on the pitch - how much I care, how much I fight.”

The hard work has paid off for Calafiori. He has established himself as Arsenal’s first-choice left-back and should extend his run of starting every Premier League game this season when the Gunners travel to Aston Villa.

No defender in the entire Premier League has taken more shots this season than Calafiori

The Italian has formed an excellent partnership with Leandro Trossard on the left flank. Indeed, prior to Trossard getting injured against Bayern Munich last week, the pair had started the last eight league games in a row.

An understanding is growing between the duo, with Trossard beginning to learn Calafiori’s unique movements.

“He pops up everywhere, in the pockets, as a striker. That unpredictability of him can hurt teams,” Trossard said last month.

“I have a good relationship with him at the moment. I know what he can do and where he can pop up in what position. Sometimes I can play a ball blind to him and I know he will be there.”

Calafiori is a one of a kind and unlike any other left-back in the Premier League. Bukayo Saka and Eberechi Eze are the only Arsenal players to have had more shots than him in the league this season.

In fact, no defender in the entire Premier League has taken more shots than Calafiori, who actually played as a striker in his youth.

His formative years came at Roma, and it was there he played with former Manchester City left-back Aleksandar Kolarov.

Calafiori cites Kolarov as one of his biggest influences, along with Italy legends Alessandro Nesta, Giorgio Chiellini and Paolo Maldini.

Those mix of styles can be seen in the way Calafiori plays now, as he combines attacking prowess with defensive steel.

Now, the defender’s biggest influence is Arteta. The idea of playing for Arsenal was, naturally, an attraction for Calafiori last year when the club came calling.

It was Arteta, however, who truly convinced him to make the move, and the Gunners paid over £40million to get a deal over the line.

“The passion he puts in every single day is unbelievable,” Calafiori told Versus. “I try to learn from him, to ‘steal’ something from people like him, because that mentality and obsession is what makes the difference at the top level.”

Calafiori is able to mix his hunger to succeed with a willingness to have a joke. He is a sociable person and one of the most popular members of the Arsenal squad — even if they playfully rib him for being a “model” now because of his underwear partnership with Adidas.

Mentor: Calafiori has been inspired by Arteta’s ‘unbelievable’ passion and mentality

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The 23-year-old speaks English, Italian and Spanish, and recently started learning Portuguese, too.

Calafiori is happy to try his hand at anything, both on and off the pitch. Off it, he has started guitar lessons. On it, the defender has bought into Arteta’s plans to use him as an extra attacker in certain phases of play. It causes chaos - but Arteta insists it is controlled.

“He has this intuition, his capacity to smell danger, to attack spaces that are very difficult for the opponent to defend,” said Arteta.

“And he does it in a way that for him is natural, which is always good. So, we encourage him to do that.

“Probably he’s never done it before because he used to do it as a centre-back, especially coming to the midfield line. Further than that, normally he doesn’t do it.

“But he has the ability to do that and in pre-season, last pre-season we started to say and you had the feeling that, hmm, he flows and things happen naturally. He’s comfortable there.

“He’s more comfortable than probably playing in the midfield line and he’s very comfortable every time he’s stepping into the opposition box and it gets better there. We have to use that as his quality.”