Goals, midfield, and Arsenal’s ongoing left-back problem

Morning all.

There’s been so much discussion about goals and goal scoring and open play the last few days. I think it’s all perfectly valid, by the way, and as I said yesterday I think Arsenal have some serious thinking to do ahead of January, but I also think there is a tendency for talking points like this to get overblown a bit.

This stat from Orbinho was posted just before the weekend’s fixtures, and it shows that this is an Arsenal team which is more than capable of scoring goals from open play:

Goals from open play in 2024 in the Premier League:

58 Man City
57 Arsenal
56 Chelsea, Liverpool
52 Spurs
46 Newcastle
45 Brentford
41 Aston Villa
40 Fulham
37 Palace, Man Utd

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— Orbinho (@orbinho.bsky.social) December 6, 2024 at 11:14 AM

There’s no doubt we’ve been less prolific this season, and it’s unquestionably an area we need to improve, but when we scored five against Sporting, three of those goals were from open play – two from set-pieces, including one penalty. We scored three open play goals against Nottingham Forest, and the two non set-piece goals in the five we got against West Ham came from some lovely football. So, I get it, it’s frustrating when we can’t find a way to win a game, and the squad/team needs some fine-tuning in the attacking third (on the training ground and in the transfer market), but I think we have enough talent to make that Fulham game a rarity rather than a regularity.

As we discussed on the Arsecast Extra yesterday, there are things we can do with the players we have. I would like to see the midfield trio of Declan Rice, Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard start some games together. When we made the Real Sociedad man our target in the summer, it’s safe to assume that was the plan – or at least a major part of the plans.

Injuries to Merino himself, and the captain, have made it difficult for Arteta to pick that combination, but I hope it’s something we get to see. I’m not 100% convinced on Merino yet, but a run of games in what the manager views as his ‘natural’ position would give us a better understanding of what he’s capable of, and how he might dovetail with two guys who are first name on the teamsheet players. It would also allow Rice to play where I think he’s best, anchoring the midfield, and my hope would be that it unlocks something in the team when we go forward.

The other option we have available to us is Ethan Nwaneri in the left 8 position. I know there are good reasons for Arteta to be cautious about his deployment, but there must come a time when his talent makes him harder and harder to ignore. He has played in 8 of Arsenal’s 15 Premier League games so far, but accumulated less than 90 minutes in total. It tells me this is about burden, not ability, and that balance could shift the other way sooner rather than later as he continues to develop physically.

Let’s also mention another young player, Myles Lewis-Skelly. Despite playing most of his youth career in midfield, he’s been reshaped in the first team environment as an option for left-back and perhaps his is a situation we need to apply some extra focus too. I’m hoping that Riccardo Calafiori’s injury hit start to life at Arsenal is about coming to terms with the physical demands of the Premier League rather than a sign of things to come, but it’s hard not to worry.

Oleksandr Zinchenko was missing again, as is fairly typical of him; Takehiro Tomiyasu remains sidelined for the foreseeable future; and while Kieran Tierney was on the bench, he hasn’t played a competitive game since the summer, and was likely only there because of the other absences. Left-back is a problem position for us. I don’t think you can ignore that aspect when you wonder why our left-hand side isn’t as fluent as the right (even leaving aside the two very special talents who tend to operate there). Ben White’s consistent availability over the last couple of seasons has helped bring the best out of Bukayo Saka and Odegaard, and we saw on Sunday that when Thomas Partey is used at right-back, it has an impact on the combinations higher up the pitch because he doesn’t get forward in the same way as White or Jurrien Timber.

I had a look at how injury prone our left-backs have been. This is how many each games each player has missed through injury since joining Arsenal:

Kieran Tierney (2019): 89 + 21 for Real Sociedad during his loan there last season – 7 distinct injuries.

Oleksandr Zinchenko (2022): 37 – 8 distinct injuries.

Takehiro Tomiyasu (2021): 77 – 8 distinct injuries.

I don’t the time/ability to work out what percentage of available games they’ve missed, but I don’t think I even need to. Between them it’s a lot of football, and what you also need to take into account is how those absences punctuate form and rhythm, and thus performance levels. So far, Calafiori has missed 12 of the 22 games we’ve played this season, but as I said, I hope it’s just about coming to terms with the demands of English football more than anything else. It’s hard not to have some concerns though.

Back to Lewis-Skelly then, and if he has the potential to really stake a claim for a first team place, then maybe we need to prioritise his place in the pecking order. Zinchenko is unreliable, Tomiyasu looks like a forgotten man (which is sad because he’s so good but how can you count on him?), and I think calls for Tierney to come back are based more on him being a decent, honest pro that people liked more than anything else. His absence has made the heart grow fonder, but he too is more likely to play a few games then break down than produce a consistent run of form and fitness.

Left-back is a problem position we need to pay attention to. Signing injury prone players to replace injury prone players doesn’t seem to be working out for some reason, so at some point we need to look at ways to fix that problem. It might not be Lewis-Skelly, but with the need to prioritise any transfer outlays by providing the attack the depth it needs, an internal solution seems the best option available to us right now. And he’s the most obvious pick.

Right, I’ll leave it there. Join us later on Patreon for a Premier League round-up in The 30, and a sneaky little Monaco preview podcast later this afternoon. Have a good one.

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