Are Arsenal now ready to bring the biggest trophies back to North London?
On Tuesday night, the Gunners sent out a serious statement by smashing Atlético Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League, all the goals coming during a 12-minute second-half scoring spree.
New striker Viktor Gyökeres scored twice, easing some of the pressure on his shoulders, while fellow summer signing Martín Zubimendi put in another eye-catching display.
Thus, the additions made this summer have elevated Mikel Arteta’s team to another level, but is balance one of the under-the-radar reasons why the Gunners have found red-hot form of late?
Arsenal's right-sided bias
During their previous title challenges, a high proportion of Arsenal’s attacks have come down their right flank.
The Gunners’ peak form under Arteta came during the second half of the 2023/24 campaign, winning 16 of 18 Premier League matches, with the Benjamin White, Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka attacking trident down the right-hand side, by some distance, their most dangerous outlet.
As documented by the Athletic, the most common combination would see White overlapping, thereby making space for Saka, with Ødegaard’s primary task to find one or the other, this functioning thanks to White’s ‘energetic and well-timed runs’ alongside Ødegaard’s ‘exquisite passing’ as well as Saka’s ‘dribbling ability [which] forces teams to double up on him’
Meantime, the Telegraph outlined that a whopping 45% of their attacks last season came down the right flank, up from 38% and 41% the previous two campaigns, making this a clear pattern across an elongated period of time, something they describe as an issue when the opposition are able to nullify this.
We could have included dozens of goals to demonstrate the threat Arsenal pose down their right-hand side, but Kai Havertz’s late winner against Brentford in March 2024 illustrates it nicely.
Now, recent acquisitions have made Arteta’s team significantly more balanced, no longer solely reliant on some Saka magic, while neither White nor Ødegaard have featured particularly much, for various reasons, so far this season.
Thus, Arteta has reshaped his left side, so has this become equally as effective?
Arsenal's new look creative left-side
Where once Oleksandr Zinchenko stood as Arsenal’s marauding left-back, Riccardo Calafiori is the current occupant of that position.
The Italian has started all eight Premier League games so far, paradoxically described as both ”defensively very solid’ and “the most electrifying man in sports entertainment” following last weekend’s 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage.
The table below documents Calaifori’s importance this season.
Stats
Calafiori
PL rank
Minutes
614
6th
Goals
1
5th
Assists
2
1st
Shots
16
2nd
Shot-creating actions
17
4th
Goal-creating actions
5
1st
Progressive carries
16
4th
Tackles
12
3rd
Clearances
20
3rd
Ball recoveries
30
2nd
As the table notes, amazingly, only Gyökeres has attempted more shots among Arsenal players in the Premier League this season, while the Italian is contributing across all areas of the pitch, including the fact he’s second only to Declan Rice in terms of ball recoveries.
However, as White can testify from the other flank, a full-back going forward is only as good as the players he has in front of him, so could Eberechi Eze be that man for Calafiori?
Right now, the England international is being deployed more towards the right, deputising for Ødegaard, with Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli, both of whom have scored crucial goals this week, time-sharing on the left flank.
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Nevertheless, Eze’s natural tendency is to drift to the left, something he’s having to fight against at the moment.
Thus, analyst Ben Mattinson posited back in 2024 that the pair could be something of a “left-sided White and Saka”, noting that there are “a lot of similarities”, adding that Calafiori is a “better carrier” and Eze is “creative”, concluding that this could be enough to fire Arsenal to the Premier League title.
The man who arrived from Crystal Palace, too much excitement, in August notched his third assist for Arsenal on Tuesday, setting up the first of Gyökeres’ two goals, while he himself opened his Gunners account at Port Vale in the EFL Cup last month.
As Arteta searches for more central creativity, Eze has regularly been deployed through the middle so far, but has started on the left too.
The best example of what he is capable of from a wider position came against Nottingham Forest, bursting in behind to get on the end of a driven ball over the top by, you guessed it, Calafiori, before squaring it for Gyökeres to tap home.
This goal could prove to be just an amuse bouche of what this £110m pair are able to contribute this season so, if Arsenal’s left side becomes anywhere near as potent as their right, supporters have every reason to believe that this genuinely could be their year.