Zubimendi stands up, the “MGM” front three falls flat, and more from the return leg of the Champions League quarterfinal.
Watching Arsenal right now… well, let’s be honest — it’s not much fun right now, is it? If we’re going to be really frank, it’s downright painful and has been for some time. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen an Arsenal side so lacking in technical quality or fluency, particularly in the final third.
Watching Arsenal currently feels like witnessing a ramshackle soapbox car that is coming apart as it approaches the finish line. If the club were such a vehicle, it would be shaking and rattling toward the checkered flag, wheels wobbling on their axles and bolts flying off its body, the driver desperately turning the steering wheel every which direction but having less and less control over the machine. The car is coming apart in spectacular fashion. And the odds it doesn’t make it over the line are, let’s face it, increasing. But it continues to inch toward the end, toward glory that will largely erase how ugly the final leg of the race was.
The Gunners, after hitting a pothole in their 2-1 loss at home to Bournemouth, have somewhat bounced back by defeating Sporting at the Emirates on Wednesday night. I say “somewhat” because again, the way Mikel Arteta’s men got it done wasn’t pretty. Again, they rode their luck a little bit. Again, they rarely pieced together complete attack moves and things were palpably nervous by the end. But they ground out a 0-0 draw in north London to advance to the Champions League semifinals for the second consecutive season. It’s the first time in their history that Arsenal have achieved that.
But I can’t help but feel dread beginning to creep back into my thoughts as I watch this side gut out match after match after match with nothing much besides duel-winning, many kilometers of running, and hoofing the ball forward frequently. The Gunners don’t look like protagonists in their own story anymore. They look more like sailors on the deck of a ship that has sailed into a storm, scrambling to batten down the hatches and keep the vessel from taking on too much water.
Of course, there are reasons for optimism. The most obvious one is that Arsenal have rediscovered something about themselves that was an important part of the team we saw in October: the ability to dominate without the ball. Despite Sporting needing a goal they managed only eight shots, a little over half the amount the Gunners finished with. Sure, some of those shots were close to causing serious issues for the home side, but the fact that was all the visitors could muster indicates that they struggled to break down Arsenal’s defense. Off the ball, Arteta’s men continue to be among the most elite teams in the world.
Additionally, Arsenal are doing this without some of their most crucial players when it comes to ball progression. Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Jurriën Timber, and Riccardo Calafiori all missed Wednesday’s second leg through injury. It’s no wonder that without any of those players in the side, the Gunners have struggled for control in possession and more incisive play in the attacking third. Hopefully, they will return soon. Considering the next fixture, Arsenal need a couple of them to do it this week.
But, there are solutions in the team. Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Leandro Trossard, and Max Dowman all came on and demonstrated to the manager that they can hold onto the ball in the final third and allow the Gunners to gain territory there. Martín Zubimendi, allowed to venture forward a little more in this match, showed that he can give his new side a little boost further up the pitch. And Cristhian Mosquera, although certainly not the second coming of João Cancelo, demonstrated an ability to fill in admirably at right back and serve as an option to progress the ball up the pitch a little.
However, some improvement on the pitch still appears paramount if Arsenal are to get either the Premier League or the Champions League over the line. On Sunday, they will travel to face Manchester City at the Etihad. It is a game of terrifyingly high stakes — if the Gunners lose, the title is in City’s hands at the end of April. And while Arsenal look disjointed, exhausted, and a little low on confidence, City are currently flying and will have a week’s rest heading into the game. Sunday’s is a match that I might need to watch from the emotional safety of a pillow fort instead of my usual seat on the couch.
The Arsenal boxcar continues to teeter toward the finish line. It could very well still get there. But we can all see the best, most souped-up soapbox cars money can buy coming up over the hill behind it. They are cruising along briskly, in pristine condition, gaining ground every second. The Gunners will need to improve quickly or I fear their silverware hopes will again come to a screeching halt.
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Ballers
Martín Zubimendi
The Spaniard needed a good game and he certainly had one. Against Sporting Zubimendi was allowed to take on a more progressive role in the game, popping up in the final third and even on the flank from time to time as he got more involved in Arsenal’s attack. He completed 89% of his 54 attempted passes, including five passes into the final third. Four of his 68 touches came in the opponent’s penalty area. And I noticed a little more liveliness to his game. Zubimendi carried more, passed forward more (which maybe is a low bar but he cleared it), and injected some urgency into the game.
Ultimately, similar to the away leg of the match, I think he was a little unfortunate not to have affected the scoreline. He put a header from a Declan Rice corner on target, although the power wasn’t there to really challenge the keeper. Zubimendi also carried the ball into Sporting’s box at one point before sliding the ball towards Viktor Gyökeres, and I’m not sure how the Swede didn’t get better contact there. He also played Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke into some threatening positions as well.
And still, Zubimendi continued to great work off the ball. He won all five of his ground duels, and won his lone aerial duel as well. He also made four tackles, two clearances, an interception, and six recoveries. Late in the match, he blocked a cross from the supremely annoying Maxi Araujo for a corner. All in all, it was a tremendous performance that earned him the Man of the Match award (and I absolutely love how his teammates genuinely celebrated it and hyped him up after the match). I think it’s worth having a discussion in the summer about what kind of midfielder he really is.
Eberechi Eze
I was highly encouraged by Eze’s comments ahead of the game. He has always struck me as a nonchalant figure but in recent weeks, the word coming from the club has been that Eze is becoming a rather important leader in the Arsenal squad. And he looked like one in the pre-match presser as he sat there and defiantly stated he does not care what others have to say about his club.
On the pitch, I think Eze just about backed that up. It was by no means a spectacular performance, but certainly in the first half of the match he was the liveliest player on the pitch in red and white. Eze racked up 50 touches, assuming a lot of responsibility for Arsenal’s progressive play on the day. He dropped in deep to receive the ball from the center backs while also floating around the penalty area to combine and create. He even popped up on the wings, as he did in the sixth minute to cleverly round a defender near the byline before cutting the ball back towards Madueke.
As I’ll get onto later, I feel that Eze was somewhat foiled by the striker he played with. Eze slid through the ball to Zubimendi for the Spaniard to play the aforementioned pass to Gyökeres. He also tried to pull of some astute linkup play, but the Swede didn’t possess the deft touch to help the former Crystal Palace man pull it off. Eze would try to take matters into his own hands, attempting four shots. None of them found the target, but one blazed just over the crossbar and another curled just beyond the far post. On another day, I think Eze produces another special moment.
But the important thing for me is that Eze is developing into a real driving force in this Arsenal team. Frankly, they need one. And after a first half of the season that was inconsistent at best, Eze looks like someone who can drag this team over the line.
Piero Hincapié
There are some games where the emphasis needs to be on dominating possession, taking the oxygen out of a game, and putting everything on cruise control to see out a match. Then there are games where you need to fight like your life depends on it to earn a result. Wednesday was more in the latter category, and those are the matches that Hincapié truly shines in.
On the ball, the Ecuadorian wasn’t great. He only managed 79% passing accuracy. He didn’t create any chances. His single attempted dribble was unsuccessful, all three of his crosses were inaccurate, and the one long ball he tried didn’t come off either. But he did complete seven passes into the final third, for what it’s worth. And there were some decent combinations with Gabriel Martinelli, although the chemistry there needs to improve.
However, he was magnificent off the ball. Hincapié made six tackles, a block, two clearances, an interception, and a recovery of possession. He won seven of ten ground duels. The left back also won a foul. And throughout the match, I saw a defender who was battling desperately for the result. Geny Catamo did hit the post in the 43th minute but other than that, Sporting had very little joy down Arsenal’s left side.
And that is what Hincapié brings to the table. When the gloves come off and you need to have it out with the other team, when a match becomes a good old-fashioned parking lot brawl, he is someone you want on your team. Time and time again, Hincapié has shown that he can outfight almost anyone in order to secure a result. He did that again on Wednesday.
Fallers
That front three
This is something of a quadruple hit. Because this MGM is certainly not grand, and I simply cannot understand the manager’s insistence on continuing to deploy this front three outside of necessity caused by injury. I do not think we have seen one good performance from Arsenal when Madueke, Gyökeres, and Martinelli have started together.
On paper, it’s exciting; two pacey, direct wingers on either side of strong and fast striker with an intense air about him and a penchant for smashing the ball into the back of the net. The central issue of course is that those three cannot reliably hold onto the ball. And when 30 percent of your outfield players, all at the top of the pitch, can’t keep possession, you cannot gain territory, you cannot advance out of your own half, you cannot sustain waves of pressure in your opponent’s third, and you cannot dominate matches consistently enough to win things.
And this isn’t a new realization. This has been evident since the first time those three lined up together. But Arteta has persisted with it, and all I can do is hope that it’s because other options are unavailable or unable to start.
In particular, I want to zero in on Gyökeres. The Swedish striker has flummoxed me all season. Because the guy can score goals. He almost certainly is one of the best finishers at Arsenal and only Eze or Mikel Merino can really challenge him for that distinction. At the time of writing the former Sporting man has 20 goal contributions to his name this season, which would normally be considered a pretty solid return.
But if we’re being truly honest, nothing else about his game is really at the level. Despite being built like The Thing (the Marvel hero, not the 1982 horror film), he is mind-bendingly unable to use his body to shield the ball and hold off defenders. Thus, he is a terrible outlet at the highest level of the sport. Long balls lofted his way almost always come back toward Arsenal’s goal.
This is probably the single biggest reason why the Gunners currently struggle to hold opponents at arm’s length. It’s why teams more freely press Arsenal’s back line or deploy a screen when Arteta’s men try to build up from the back. If Gyökeres is on the pitch, what are Arsenal going to do? Go long? That normally only ends one way.
And so, despite the fact that my answer would certainly have been different a year ago, I’m not sure if Gyökeres’ output has been worth the sacrificed control in games. I’ve noticed players not passing to him and frankly, I understand. It’s probably why Saka, whose superpower is almost always making the right decision on the ball, was lambasted by online Arsenal fans earlier this season for not giving Gyökeres the ball more.
Of course, this can all change if the Swede scores some crucial goals to help his side achieve glory as he did for his country a couple weeks ago. But even then, I lean towards thinking Arsenal need something else at the tip of the spear.
The thing that was most damning for the MGM trio was what happened after they were replaced. A half-fit Kai Havertz, Leandro Trossard in the midst of a terrible run of form, a post-prime Gabriel Jesus, and 16-year-old Max Dowman were better able to keep the ball. As a result, the Gunners were able to actually exert some control over a match that threatened to spiral out of hand and see things out. And, based on how early Gyökeres was swapped for Havertz, Arteta clearly felt a disaster was imminent if he didn’t put on an acceptable target man.
Again, I understand that Arteta can’t just deploy Havertz and some combination of Saka, Trossard, Jesus, and/or Dowman every game from here on out. But whenever possible, the manager needs to select a much more balanced front three. Arsenal will face teams far better than Sporting for most of the remainder of the season. You can’t keep giving them the ball back.
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