Riccardo Calafiori’s transfer from Bologna has added quality to Arsenal’s defence.
However, there’s a major concern among the Gooners, which is how Mikel Arteta will keep all his defenders satisfied while aiming for 114 points (which helps them outwit City in the title race).
While scrolling through some posts on X, I came across an intriguing line-up that I felt Mikel Arteta could, on big occasions, rely on to repel anything thrown at his team by the toughest of opponents.
Interestingly, you’ll notice that “this” line-up doesn’t worry about benching Jurrien Timber or even Gabriel to make room for Calafiori in the starting 11. Why so? In that lineup, Arteta fields ALL his strongest defensive players.
Raya starts in goal.
Gabriel, William Saliba, and Timber form a back three.
Ben White and Calafiori play wingback roles.
Declan Rice is in central midfield, while Martin Odegaard is a 10.
Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz, and Bukayo Saka are on attack.
Looking at this line-up, considering the fullbacks will also be inverting to midfield, it could be the most defensive and attacking line-up Mikel Arteta fields.
Even though I won’t recommend using it every game, it might be our go-to lineup when we want to play it safe.
What changes would you make to this line-up?
Jack Anderson
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Hammered into his image and mouled to the tee, this is a hundred percent the gaffer’s team.
It seem the gaffer is building something very special, I suspect Arsenal will become a very attacking team at home regardless of the opposition.
I can see a bold 3 : 4 : 3 camping in the opposition half for long and extended periods, Arsenal is yet to match the Citizens with ball possession whenever they meet, this is what I suspect the gaffer silently addressing.
Now there isn’t much quality midfielders on the market
4-3-3 base line up, nothing else!
Looks good defensive, but I thought Rice wants to play number 8 this year? Otherwise defensively you have it their as very strong, maybe change to that system to see games out, when leading, the balance has to work. Not useful against most low blocking teams, but good set up for seeing games out or against the very top European opposition teams.
But your system looks tight in defence, I agree.
White is not a wing back and we’ll be murdered in the midfield with that formation being a man short.
You keep players happy with genuine rotation and actually staying in the cup competitions….two concepts that are foreign to us at the moment.
Arteta has never given an indication of changing from a back four to a back three, and I hope he continues in this vein.I may be wrong, but I think virtually all the elite European sides play with a back four and the prospect of Timber and Califori being used as wing backs does not make sense as they have never been used in such a role with their previous Clubs.
Completely agree, Grandad. I think the last British club to successful deploy a back 3 was Chelsea under Tuchel and that worked because he had Reiss James and Ben Chilwell.
What is being proposed in this article amounts to a back 5 and that will not only negatively affect our forward play but is completely unnecessary; we had the best defence last year.
As a starting line-up it looks good defensively.
For my money there’s still a pretty obvious weakness: no “killer striker”. It isn’t Havertz I think (and neither is it Jesus who is on the bench, I assume in this scenario).
We all know City has Haaland and Arsenal won’t get a Haaland MkII, of course. They could still get a striker who’ll actually hit the 20+ goals a season that’s expected. Not lots of near misses as we saw against Liverpool.
Whether that’s our young friend Gyokeres remains to be seen. If the hype around him is only partially true it could be. However, Arsenal still appears to be first in a field of one after his signature which is a little concerning, isn’t it?
Why just 20 plus? What is this fascination with 20? If that’s your goal, don’t you think Havertz can get 20 plus all season? Mind you he almost plays every game. He might not be clinical in converting every chance into goal but doesn’t miss games either due to injuries.
I would not bring any striker unless they guaranteed 30 plus goal strikers, not 20! Havertz can get to 20 if he plays CF every game.
Be careful what you wish for. Wish for 30 plus striker, not 20 plus. We have one already.
We have a good set of defenders and as a result fans are trying to fit them all in. That is actually risky. What happens when they need rest or injured? It leaves just Kiwior on the bench (Tomi and Zinchenko have their well known issues).Let’s embrace rotation rather than trying to fit everyone in. Arteta already uses a back three- there are phases of play where we have three at the back with one tucking into midfield or creating an overlap.
Arteta would never play a back three; that’s not his style
I agree
There is nothing actually wrong with that line up but we all know it ain’t going to happen
I welcome all articles, particularly ones of this nature, but I think in this case Jack’s proposed line-up is very unlikely to happen and even less necessary.
I expect MA to use a back 4. If we were going to use wingbacks then the time was when we had AMN and Kieran Tierney. White and Calafiori ain’t gonna cut it.
So Benny Blanco and Calafiori will play as the primary fullbacks and Timber and Tomiyasu will act as cover for any of the positions across the back 4.
There is an outside chance Arteta might use Timber as a holding midfielder. He’s good enough but I think that’s unlikely as it’s a specialist role.
I would be happy to see Rice and Zinchenko play as a 2 in front of a back 4 of White, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori. I think it will revolutionize Zinny.
Havertz must be deployed as the primary striker. If he plays that position all season and doesn’t get injured then I expect him to finish as our top scorer.