Is that really your front three?
Due to injuries and a heavy first-leg advantage, Mikel Arteta tries some things.
It wasn’t the most exciting of the second legs of the Champions League Round of 16. That would be PSG-Liverpool or Real Madrid-Atlético Madrid, both of which ended in a penalty shootout. It wasn’t the most boring or most Unai Emery. That would be Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, already prepared to bunker down with a two-goal lead and then gifted a 17th-minute red card by Club Brugge. But what about the weirdest?
The honor of the weirdest second leg in this CL round goes to none other than Arsenal and PSV, playing out a match that would only matter if PSV could score not four, not five, but six goals. Thanks to Arsenal’s clinical shooting the week before–shocking I know–Mikel Arteta had any and every lineup possibility available to him, excluding all those injured attackers of course. What did the manager, sometimes affectionately called a “football terrorist,” dream up then?
Complete and total nightmare fuel but, also, in a way that’s the beauty of soccer. In the modern era, traditional positions aren’t quite as important as much as what roles and spaces players occupy. Left back Kieran Tierney is pretty fast and has a wicked cross on his left foot. Left winger it is! Defensive midfielder Mikel Merino is big, tall, and big and tall. You’re the new number 9! Raheem Sterling used to be a good winger but, after well over 400 matches played, his body doesn’t allow him to be a good winger anymore. Right winger it is…
Yes, that’s the front three Arteta trotted out on Wednesday evening. Fittingly, Sterling’s inclusion gave fans and pundits the most consternation. It’s been a rough season for the former superstar man, and even his two-assist outing here was marred by missed chances and unlucky bounces; he was fortunate to only see yellow following a leg-breaking kind of tackle in the dying minutes. He somehow won both the Player of the Match and squeezed into the starting 11 of the CL Team of the Week. This gives credence to the growing idea that people aren’t watching the matches.
Tierney and Merino–who we’ve unfortunately seen in this role before–were essentially anonymous in this match. But that’s not where Arteta’s lineup shenanigans ended. Four of the starting 11 were all players with significant experience and time at left back: the aforementioned Tierney, Oleksandr Zinchenko moving into Martin Ødegaard’s midfield role, Jakub Kiwior replacing William Saliba in defense, and Myles Lewis-Skelly in the actual left back spot. Arteta has already become a bit of a meme with his left back obsession, every summer a new one being purchased to take over for the discarded one (bought the prior summer).
This took his compulsion even deeper but also kind of worked. Zinchenko kicked off the scoring with a beautiful curler on his left foot from the right side of the box. You know the goal, the kind that Ethan Nwaneri and Bukayo Saka have made their home this season. Kiwior has shown himself to be more than capable filling in for three of the four defensive spots, as long as it’s not against a top-level club. PSV are not a top-level club. And Lewis-Skelly, trained as a midfielder in the academy, continues to play much older than his eighteen years.
But then something even more glorious happened: a fifth left back came onto the pitch in the second half! Riccardo Calafiori’s entrance, nominally the first-choice in said position, meant that the sicko Arteta was nearly halfway to fulfilling his dream of a starting 11 of all left backs. The mad genius almost got to witness a left back to left back to left back linkup for a goal, but Calafiori couldn’t get his shot past the PSV keeper.
The match that didn’t matter ended 2-2, with Arsenal now set to play Real Madrid in the CL Quarterfinals in April. As much fun as the left back celebration was–for me anyways–please soccer gods do not allow that lineup anywhere near Madrid. Ben White started for the first time in months and unsurprisingly looked off the pace. Gabriel Martinelli returned from a hamstring injury and will be vital against Real, if only to keep Sterling far away from any minutes.
Still, even with some players returning from a stint on the sidelines, it’s hard to imagine Arsenal putting up a true fight without the return of Saka to the right side. The attack’s consistency has plummeted since his injury in December, knocking the squad out of the PL title race and both cup competitions. All that’s left for the Gunners is the Champions League. Let’s see how many left backs Arteta is able to sneak in. After all, Saka was once a left back.