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With Arsenal going within one win of clinching their first Premier League title in 20 years last season, their summer recruitment was always going to be evolution and not revolution.
Most Arsenal supporters would probably agree on eight of the starting line-up, with the only possible exceptions being on the left-hand side of the field. New signings Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino and Raheem Sterling will all compete with players currently at the Emirates for a regular starting berth in Mikel Arteta’s line-up on the left flank.
With Arsenal’s trio of Ben White, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka being first choice on the right-hand side, it is perhaps understandable that they favour attacking down the right flank. Indeed, 45 per cent of their attacks in the Premier League this season have come from down the right-hand side of the field, this is also the highest percentage that a team has attacked in the Premier League this campaign.
In contrast, Arteta’s men have only had 31 per cent of their attacks down the left flank this season, this is also the lowest percentage of attacks that a team has made down the left-hand side in the Premier League this season.
The right hand-side is favoured so heavily by Arsenal when going forward that since the start of last season, Odegaard, Saka and White have led the way for Arsenal in passes into the box. As much as 45 per cent of passes made into the box in that period have been made by this trio.
So, with more needed from the left flank, Arsenal added Raheem Sterling on loan from Chelsea at the end of the transfer window. The 29-year-old who can play all across the front has 123 goals and 63 assists in 379 Premier League appearances and he has won four titles with Manchester City.
Last season Sterling contributed 10 goals and eight assists in all competitions for Chelsea which was only one fewer than Leandro Trossard managed for Arsenal last term. Gabriel Martinelli had the less impressive numbers in terms of goals and assists last season with eight goals and five assists in all competitions.
In the Premier League in 2024, Trossard has performed much better than both Martinelli and Sterling with his tally of 10 goals and assists combined equalling the amount that Martinelli and Sterling have combined in 2024.
While these three battle for the position on the left-hand side of Arsenal’s attack, the midfield position on the left-hand side looks more obvious with new signing Mikel Merino expected to take over once he recovers from a shoulder injury. Merino a £31m signing from Real Sociedad looks a natural replacement for Granit Xhaka who excelled in that position in 2022-23 and was not properly replaced last season.
Arsenal have a lot of different options at left-back with new signing Riccardo Calafiori competing against Oleksandr Zinchenko and the fit again Jurrien Timber to fill that role. This season Zinchenko started at left-back on the opening day of the season while Timber started in the last two Premier League games against Aston Villa and Brighton.
Timber missed the majority of last season with a knee injury sustained on his Premier League debut last August. All fpur of his career starts at left-back have been for Arsenal, while he made only further 10 club career starts at right-back, all for Ajax.
Calafiori, who picked up an injury while with Italy during the September internationals, has switched between left-back and centre-back throughout his career. Calafiori played at centre-back for Italy during Euro 2024 and made only four club starts last season at left-back.
Zinchenko has by far the most experience as a left-back with 150 of his 188 club career starts at left-back. However since the start of February 10 of his last 11 appearances for Arsenal in all competitions have been at Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal have three big away games in a week starting on Sunday at Tottenham, Thursday at Atalanta and then on the following Sunday when they meet Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
By the end of next week, it may become clearer which players will get the first opportunities to nail down the left-hand-sided slots in Arteta’s best team.
Sunday 15th September 1:00pm
Kick off 2:00pm
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