Will Arsenal’s new arrivals on the left side finally fix Martinelli’s isolation up front

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·08 de setembro de 2024

Will Arsenal’s new arrivals on the left side finally fix Martinelli’s isolation up front

The Right side has been key to our recent title bids but balance is needed to get us over the line.

We Arsenal fans know that the most important component of a starting eleven is the spine of the team, the positions that run through the center of a team, from the goalkeeper to the striker, needs to contain solid profiles, as that’s the foundation that any decent team uses to become a very good team. Arsenal have a more than solid spine, we all know that, but another area where we’ve shown unwavering strength and consistency is the right side.

Vídeos OneFootball

The almost telepathic connection that Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka have on that side of the pitch is quite remarkable, with them capable of single handedly dismantling teams all by themselves. To put how influential they’ve been to the squad into stats, the three of them were responsible for scoring 40% (35 goals) of our total 113 goals scored in the entirety of last season. This percentage could have been higher if it was factoring in assists as well but remains quite very impressive. The strength and stability shown on our right side has been a stark contrast to our left.

This contrast has been due to a few factors, one being the stability we’ve had on the right in terms of personnel, there’s hardly ever any chopping and changing on our right side with White, Saka and Odegaard being a mainstay and consistently playing together for large parts of the season, as you can imagine this familiarity will foster a better synergy on the field which will in turn lead to more productivity, compare this to the left side which is not so stable with us mostly changing players at left back and on the left-wing due to inconsistencies, injuries and so on.

Another factor which makes our right side is stronger is the lack of a creative force at left 8, Arteta favours a more robust duel winner in that area of the pitch which I think has been an hindrance to creativity on the left, as opposed to having a creative machine like Odegaard on the right our boss has opted for more control in the other side which is understandable given how exposed our middle will be without it.

The third and last factor I would say has been the cause has to be the lack of suitable profiles at our disposal at leftback last season, I mean just looking at how complete a player White is on the order side then it’s clear to see why our right dominates. White is very well suited to invert in midfield to recycle possession or make lung bursting runs on the overlap/underlap to provide much needed support for Saka on the right. Zinchenko, Tomiyasu and Kiwior all shared minutes on the left last season, but all lacked the key traits attributed to what White offers on the right flank..

Striking the balance and making our left side just as dynamic and devastating as our left will go a long way in helping us finally turn from title contenders to winners, it’s something that Mikel and the club have obviously given thoughts to with their activity in the recent transfer window, Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino and Sterling are all predominantly left sided players and have been brought in to hopefully improve our left side, The former especially will hopefully be the version of Ben White we have been craving for in the left back slot.

Has the lopsided nature of the team been the cause for the dip in Gabriel Martinelli’s form? And will Calafiori and Merino, once they are fully integrated to the team, fix our left-side weaknesses?

KENNETH BENJAMIN.

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