It has been difficult to pick many holes in Arsenal’s team this season, particularly since the turn of the year when they have scored goals for fun and kept them to a minimum at the other end, but it increasingly looks as though they have a problem position.
Mikel Arteta has plenty of players, with different profiles, to pick from at left back. Oleksandr Zinchenko is the inverted option who can double up as a central midfielder to give Arsenal more control, Jakub Kiwior is a more orthodox full-back, providing natural width and overlapping runs and Takehiro Tomiyasu is more of a safety net, offering defensive solidity and more pace than the other two.
However, with the finish line for the 2023-24 season in sight, none of the trio have locked the left-back position down. Predicting who will get the nod is becoming a difficult guessing game.
Should Tomiyasu get the nod at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday, which seems a reasonable prospect given how the last two games have panned out, Arteta will have selected three different starters there in a little over a week.
It’s worth pointing out that Arteta has been without potentially his first pick since August. Jurrien Timber, a £38m signing from Ajax last summer, started at left-back in the Community Shield against Manchester City and in Arsenal’s opening Premier League game with Nottingham Forest, before succumbing to an ACL injury which has sidelined him ever since.
Timber may be the long-term solution, but Arteta has an issue to fix in the short term. It may have gone unnoticed outside of north London, but Zinchenko’s fall from grace has been swift and dramatic.
The 27-year-old made a significant impact in his debut season, adding another dimension to Arteta’s team with his positional intelligence and technical prowess, while also bringing a win-at-all-costs mentality with him from Manchester City. He was a poster boy for Arsenal’s progress, respected by teammates and adored by supporters.
He’s endured a difficult second season, though, with his limitations now overshadowing his strengths. It is perhaps no coincidence that Zinchenko’s form has deteriorated since Granit Xhaka left as the pair struck up an excellent relationship on Arsenal’s left flank, rotating seamlessly with one another at left-back and in midfield.
Zinchenko hasn’t had that same level of protection or understanding this campaign and opposition teams have frequently targeted his defensive vulnerability. That was evident at the weekend when Unai Emery instructed two rapid wingers – first Moussa Diaby and then Leon Bailey – to play high and wide to force Zinchenko deep and restrict his ability to get forward. Brighton also targeted him less successfully the previous weekend.
For a player normally so confident in his abilities, Zinchenko’s obvious self-doubt at present is particularly stark. He looks unsure of himself and was given the meme treatment after the defeat to Villa for tracking Diaby so far back that he was separated from the rest of the back four by at least 20 yards.
Worse still for his brittle confidence, he was loudly jeered three times: after booting the ball out of play with Arsenal on the attack so Nicolo Zaniolo could receive treatment; after trying to nutmeg Youri Tielemans inside his own box with the Belgian hitting both bar and post with a subsequent shot; and when his No 35 flashed up on the fourth official’s board. Groans at his risk-taking have become more pronounced lately.
Zinchenko has recently been brought back into the team in place of Kiwior. The Poland international is naturally a centre-back but had been redeployed on the left to good effect, before coming up against elite opponents in City and Bayern Munich.
It probably hasn’t done his self-esteem much good that he was hooked at half-time in both of those matches after struggling to contain Bernardo Silva and Leroy Sane, with the latter giving him the runaround at the Emirates.
Similarly to Zinchenko, Kiwior has been identified by opponents as a weak point to exploit, which could result in Tomiyasu earning a first start since 2 December in Munich in midweek.
Tomiyasu is the most mobile and athletic of the three and the best one-on-one defender too, although he lacks Zinchenko’s poise on the ball, Kiwior’s aerial threat from set-pieces and the left-footedness of both.
Arsenal’s current issues at left-back might have piqued the interest of Kieran Tierney out in San Sebastian. Once tipped as a potential club captain of the future, albeit in the wilderness years, Tierney slipped down Arteta’s pecking order because he was ill-suited to inverting into midfield.
Perhaps there’s a way back for him, although it’s difficult to assess his current level as his season with Real Sociedad has unfortunately been decimated by hamstring injuries.
All is not lost for Arsenal’s season. Beat a battered and bruised Bayern in Germany and the outlook will look far better than it does now after a surprise slip-up in the Premier League title race. They will need everyone performing at the peak of their powers to claw back City and reach the latter stages of the Champions League, though. Including whoever plays to the left of Gabriel.
