Arteta latest tactical tweak to the Arsenal midfield seems to be paying dividends

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·30 November 2024

Arteta latest tactical tweak to the Arsenal midfield seems to be paying dividends

Our struggles in midfield have been well documented this season, the struggles were particularly in a very important department in the engine room with this being none other than our attacking midfield.

The long term absence of Martin Ødegaard was particularly to blame for this, we lacked any bit of invention and creativity for the two month period we were without the Norwegian. Injuries in other areas of the pitch also contributed to this midfield slump during this spell as well, absences in the fullback areas at times led to Thomas Partey filling at right-back.

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That was another reason but it all boiled down to the injury to Ødegaard, if you need proof then just look at how his presence in midfield alone has elevated the performances of a fair few around him. He was largely responsible for the Gunners dropping arguably their best performances of the season so far against the pair of Nottingham Forest and Sporting Lisbon, which certainly tells us a lot about his importance to the squad.

There was an interesting tweak that was made by the boss on our midfield in our most recent win against Sporting Lisbon. It wasn’t necessarily a tweak to our overall midfield structure but more or less an instruction to our two left 8s. We saw the duo of Ødegaard and Rice swapping their positions at left eight a few times on Tuesday night with the latter being the one who did it the most.

We profited from this when Rice, who found himself in the right half space slipped Jurrien Timber through in the lead up to our first goal. We also saw the Englishman making a few runs in the right half channel a couple of times in the game, though Saka was unable to put him through at times.

It remains to be seen whether this was just an adaptation of the midfield to face Sporting, or whether it will remain a constant occurrence in our midfield for future matches. Either way, this is something we should certainly look out for in the game against West Ham tonight.

Considering how it served us well in the demolition of Sporting, should it be utilized with greater frequency by Mikel Arteta?

BENJAMIN KENNETH

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