Oleksandr Zinchenko helping transform Arsenal and bringing the best out of Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Martinelli | Football News

Oleksandr Zinchenko has the ball at his feet a few yards outside the Arsenal box. There were two Tottenham forwards closing in on him and several others hovering, waiting to pounce.

At this point, most players will try to get rid of it as quickly as possible. Safe reverse pass. Maybe even a panic ball above. But Zinchenko is not like most players.

However, he feints one way and then moves another, dribbling around Dejan Kulusevski like a matador playing with a bull, then accelerates into a small pocket from behind and uses his weak legs to thread through the reverse pass to Granit Xhaka.

In a few seconds, he has taken six Spurs players out of the game, single-handedly bypassing the press and sending Arsenal into the attack. Xhaka, checking the run slightly to receive it, looks as surprised as the person who has managed to pull it off.

That came less than two minutes into the second half of Sunday’s match at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, when Arsenal’s most injured opponents were on fire, the words of Antonio Conte’s team still ringing in his ears, all the more impressive.

But this is what Zinchenko did.

His strength and technical skills helped Manchester City win four Premier League titles. Now help transform Arsenal. And now the left-back has a central role rather than a supporting one.

That applies to the position on the field, of course, as well as the status in the team.

Zinchenko’s function is very different from that of a conventional full-back. Instead of charging forward on the overlap, he went inside, helping the enemy and breaking away.

Injuries have limited him to just 10 Premier League starts this season but his importance to Arsenal’s build-up is clear. He averages more touches per 90 minutes than anyone else. He ranks top for passes in the opposition half and in the final third as well.

In fact, only five players in the Premier League have made more passes in the final third than Zinchenko this season and that means that all of them – Kyle Walker, Joao Cancelo, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri and Riyad Mahrez – play for Manchester City.

The qualities that helped him fit in at City made him stand out at Arsenal. The left back is also a playmaker.

Rarely is that more evident than against Spurs on Sunday.

Zinchenko was outstanding, especially in the first half, the 26-year-old allowed Mikel Arteta’s side to advance the ball up the pitch and then keep it there. At times, he even appeared on the right side of center field. Spurs don’t know how to deal with him.

He was named as one of City’s three best players technically by Walker last season – high praise given the competition – and his role also requires tactical intelligence. “He is very smart,” said Pep Guardiola. Arteta, Guardiola’s former assistant, agreed.

The £32m arrival from City has allowed Arsenal’s manager to rebuild his squad, a process which, he says, has been crucial to his transformation from top-four hopefuls to title favourites.

“It’s a necessity,” Arteta told Jamie Carragher during a recent appearance at the Monday Night Football.

“If the squad wants to develop to another level, to be dominant and have more resources in the final third, we have to make those changes.”

The change saw Xhaka go further. The 30-year-old was first used as Arsenal’s left-back number 8 in the second half of last season, but Arteta still feels he needs to “unlock the brain” and needs help.

That help came in the form of Zinchenko, an inverted full-back who could occupy space behind Xhaka and provide a platform from which to run. Xhaka has developed well, scoring three goals and providing four assists, his attacking threat has changed.

Xhaka is not the only player to benefit.

Gabriel Martinelli is now more able to play to his strengths.

“If Martinelli wants to score more goals, he has to play more in the last line and he has to play wide, because that’s his quality,” Arteta said. Monday Night Football.

“I believe that him playing there and taking the ball in many situations will give us more than having a full-back there all season.”

Arteta has been proven right.

Martinelli is most dangerous when he takes the ball near the touchline and cuts inside and he can do it more often with his back, like Zinchenko, than outside, like Kieran Tierney.

Martinelli occupies that space now and his output has exploded.

The Brazilian gets more touches, makes more dribbles, creates more chances and gets more shots. With seven goals, he has scored more than he did in the entire last campaign.

Arsenal, who previously relied heavily on the right, where Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard developed a near telepathic understanding and the full-back role was more conservative, are now dangerous on the left.

In fact, in the game Zinchenko has started, he sends the same proportion of attacks on both sides.

The changes in Arsenal’s structure can be seen in their average position compared to last season.

The left-back, now Zinchenko rather than Tierney, is deeper and closer to the center of the field, while Xhaka and Martinelli are deployed further forward, and the latter also more.

“The triangle is better if it’s like that,” Arteta said.

The change in form is very important – “it’s a transformation that I believe the team needs to make,” added Arteta – but it’s Zinchenko who makes it work. The two players who have been passed over the most this season? Martinelli and Xhaka.

Zinchenko has provided the necessary services as well as defensive cover – and that’s not all.

Like former City team-mate Gabriel Jesus, Zinchenko has brought a winning mentality to the Emirates Stadium. He knows exactly what it takes to succeed, with an incredible 78 percent win rate in club games he has started over the last six seasons.

Arteta called him a “ruthless winner” in August and rightly so.

Since November, when Arsenal’s leaders at the top of the table were just two points, the Ukrainian told reporters about his desire to “break” the “stereotype” that Arsenal only strive for the top four. “We have to look for more,” he said.

They do now and Zinchenko is at the heart.

Supporters love his spirit and aggressive nature – usually, despite being substituted, he was the one who pulled Aaron Ramsdale out of the post-match clash at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium – and that quality can be seen in the way he defends. .

Indeed, while there is a perception that he is easily vulnerable in one-on-one situations, it is worth noting that his matchup success rate of 64 percent is second only to William Saliba among Arsenal’s outfield players this season. Despite being shorter, he won a higher percentage of aerials, which was 73 percent.

He has improved Arsenal in defense as well as attack and the results prove it. So far this season, he has kept six clean sheets in the 10 Premier League games he has started and just three of the eight games he hasn’t.

This is just another example of how, with and without the ball, on and off the pitch, Arsenal are reaping the benefits of the Zinchenko effect, and a player who is wired differently from the rest.

Watch Arsenal vs Man Utd live on Sky Sports Premier League on Sunday from 4pm; kick-off 4.30pm