Arsenal are facing their worst possible nightmare with four of their potentially starting forwards unavailable, two for the rest of the season, including Kai Havertz, who has reportedly torn his hamstring. Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka are out for a month, potentially two in the case of Saka.
Mikel Arteta is facing the biggest challenge of his Arsenal career, with the team’s hopes of winning the title in tatters. Qualification for the Champions League is an absolute must, but the lack of options has thinned the squad further – with anger bubbling away within the fan base after not doing any business in January.
But the games do not stop and now the club travel to Leicester with a week-plus of rest from their warm-weather training camp in Dubai. Those who avoided injury of course remain as options for Arteta who needs to find some way of reworking the team.
For me, he does now need to rework things after some hard thinking. Just throwing together a front line of Raheem Sterling, Leandro Trossard and Ethan Nwaneri might be obvious but it leaves nothing senior on the bench.
Arsenal and Arteta need to adapt and for this week’s look at a dream XI, I have switched things up and moved to a back three. Jurrien Timber, William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes make up that back three and will operate as a strong defensive line which could include the returning Ben White in the near future.
This means playing with wide players who can also operate as full-backs, Ethan Nwaneri on the right and Myles Lewis-Skelly on the left. Certainly, there will be more defensive expectations from the left than the right, with the structure merging into a back four when out of possession but with supporting runs down the flank from Lewis-Skelly offering width – there could be potential for Kieran Tierney to play a part here too.
The midfield is a block of three, Thomas Partey, Declan Rice – on the right of the three – and Mikel Merino operating on the left. Partey is certainly the deepest of the group but then a fourth completes something of a diamond shape overall in Martin Odegaard in a central ten position.
Completing the 3-5-1-1 setup is Leandro Trossard at the tip, being fed by Odegaard and supported in the wide areas by the two Hale End graduates. It’s not pretty, it’s not clean but until some players return Arteta needs to find other ways to win games.
Dream Arsenal XI vs Leicester – Raya; Timber, Saliba, Gabriel; Nwaneri, Rice, Partey, Merino, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard; Trossard
- Source: NEWHD MEDIA
