BREAKING NEWS: He was so good yesterday that I couldn’t even understand the role given to Him by Arteta yesterday,small time you will see him in the opposition box, another time you will see him defending”, Alan Shearer reveals ONE Arsenal player who deserves Premier League player of the month already for his impressive performance yesterday
Mikel Arteta will have been delighted with the simplicity of Arsenal’s win against West Ham United on Saturday.
Arsenal dominated in all areas, and other than in the first minute, the hosts never really looked like conceding.
Viktor Gyokeres was excellent for Arsenal despite not scoring, and Arteta yielded three points and a ton of positives from another 90 minutes of good work.
In terms of top performers, Declan Rice enjoyed playing against his old side West Ham once again.
Rice netted Arsenal’s opener once Eberechi Eze’s shot was saved and spilled in his direction.
And despite starting the game in a deeper role, Rice was instrumental to Arsenal’s attacking efforts by the end of the game.
Alan Shearer analyses Declan Rice’s Arsenal performance against West Ham
That being said, Alan Shearer actually discussed Rice’s positional alteration against West Ham when analysing the match on ‘Match of the Day’.
After a busy week, Arteta decided to give Martin Zubimendi a rest in the middle – he opted for a midfield three of Rice, Eze and Martin Odegaard
In that set-up, Rice was the holding midfielder – the role he often played for West Ham.
But once Odegaard injured his knee, Arteta put Zubimendi in the pivot and Rice then had a licence to get further forward, explaining why he scored.
Analysing that move, Shearer said: “Declan Rice was that little sitter in midfield, and there’s nothing wrong with that – he’s very, very good at it and Arsenal were still creating the chances and getting into reasonable forward positions.”
However, once Zubimendi had switched in for Odegaard, Shearer was then delighted with Rice’s attacking work.
He continued: “Second half, off he goes, he’s brilliant at doing that, I think he’s a better player at doing that in that position than he is sitting. Albeit that he can do both jobs equally well.”
Mikel Arteta might not know his strongest midfield three at Arsenal
Usually in football the phrase, ‘he doesn’t know his strongest team’, is levelled as an insult towards managers.
But that’s actually a strength of Arsenal’s right now – Arteta has so many top level options, and even West Ham boss Nuno Espirito Santo wouldn’t have known what was coming.
In midfield, Arteta has Mikel Merino, Ethan Nwaneri and Christian Norgaard in addition to Eze, Odegaard, Rice and Zubimendi, and in some respects, it’s an embarrassment of riches.
Arteta used two different world class defensive midfielders against West Ham, and he still had last season’s Brentford captain Norgaard on the bench.
Clearly, Arsenal will be competing on all fronts this season.
However, Odegaard’s latest injury is still not ideal for the Gunners at all, and following full-time in N5, Arteta did comment on Odegaard’s latest issue.
