I suspect that most Premier League observers would agree that Arsenal currently have one of the deepest squads in Europe. In home wins against Leeds and Lille, the Gunners were able to use their bench effectively to win games, with Bruno Guimaraes scoring the winner for Leeds after coming on in the second half, while Bukayo Saka added an assist and a goal within minutes of coming on against Lille on Tuesday.
Mikel Arteta has plenty of depth in almost every position. Even against Lille, Piero Hincapie was injured and Myles Lewis Skelly played on the left, although manager Riccardo Calafiori wanted to see minutes. Myles has played as a left-back for England and is actually Arsenal’s third choice for the role. World Cup winners Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi are regulars on the bench.
This is a very deep squad with quality all around. However, probably the lowest barrier to breaking into Arsenal’s squad right now is on the left wing. Not being able to sign Morgan Rogers or Vinicius Junior in the summer has left a little short of good, bona fide elite quality. This is a position Arsenal have been “looking at” for some time.
Leandro Trossard proved to be a very strong opportunistic signing for the position in January 2023, but he was 28 when he joined and was never going to be a long-term solution. Gabriel Martinelli didn’t quite develop as we all hoped. Both players left the club this summer, and in fact, both departures have been in post for a while for different reasons. Both players could have left earlier if Arteta could get a ‘lighthouse player’ for this wing.
Christos Tzolis arrived this summer and he looks bright enough, but he arrived from the Belgian league in a summer when the club was still pushing for Rogers and Vinicius. That said, he could be a good, solid player, but if he could provide the stardust of someone like, say, Bukayo Saka, that would be a story.
In short, the left wing position feels as if it is, in a word, “now up for grabs”. Tzolis’ injury during the last international break adds to this impression. Arteta sprung a surprise by picking Noni Madueke there against Leeds on Saturday, Arteta later explained: “He deserves the chance he got and he grabbed it with both hands.
“When I really didn’t like what he was doing and it affected the game, I made certain decisions and he accepted them. What he did was raise the level and he was the best player in the last 10 days in training. He didn’t give me a choice not to pick him and not play today.”
Madueke was not selected to play for England, so there may be a sense of pragmatism in this decision. Arteta has not previously tended to play left-footed on the left wing; There could be some dynamism and acceleration in Arsenal’s attack and Madueke suggests his final product could be variable to say the least.
Eberechi Eze started on the left against Lille and the impression remains that Arteta sees Eze as more of a centre-back. While Madueke will play the role in a very “traditional” way, hugging the touchline and looking to involve a full-back at every opportunity, Eze prefers a half-space somewhere between the 10 and the left winger. He scored for Lille after drifting in from the left, as Trossard did so effectively.
Eze and Madueke are quite different profiles for lefties. Sometimes there’s a really fine line between diversity and confusion in a lineup. In one respect, having two such different players for the role creates variety; but sometimes it can just be a sign that you have two players who are a little mismatched.
Eze may be very peripheral, but it has the end product. Madueke is very busy and busy but no final product. If we could smooth the two profiles together, take the high-attraction, high-end product version and sell the low-touch, no end-product version to Chelsea for £80m.
Arsenal don’t swap Declan Rice for another midfielder based on his attributes and individual game plans, he plays every game because he is elite in almost everything almost all the time. Nevertheless, Eze and Madueke should see this as an unmissable opportunity to establish themselves firmly at Arsenal. Left-back might not be the optimal position for either at this stage, but that’s the lowest bar to break into Arsenal’s team.
Interestingly, Mikel Arteta threw a little curve ball this week by suggesting that Max Dowman could get some left field experience. (17 is a good age to discover the ‘Leftist’ album. I probably wouldn’t advise Max to enjoy some of the, ahem, “improvements” I’ve made).
“We haven’t seen Max a lot on the left and I think it’s probably easier (to play there) right now, especially with the way we’ve brought him in and trained him in those two positions (centre or right). But with the talent he’s got, if we ever need to put him in a new role, I think he’ll be able to adapt.”
A quote from Arteta that “it’s probably easier (to play there) at the moment” explains it. He knows it’s an open spot in the team and it would certainly be incredibly convenient if Max Dowman could fit the left-back boots. If he does, that position will be his for at least a decade, and sooner or later we’ll have to face the fact that both Saka and Dowman won’t be able to play on the right wing.
But just because it would be convenient for Dowman to become a world-class left winger doesn’t mean it will necessarily happen or be best for him. Reminds me a bit of Ethan Nwaneri, if he could develop his game to be a top striker, a role he could have in the Arsenal team for the next decade. But these are not Tetris pieces, but people we meet.
But even if Dowman doesn’t miss out on the left wing position long-term, it could be a good path to more regular minutes in the short term. Lewis-Skelly enjoyed a solid apprenticeship on the left wing where he had minutes before moving right into his preferred midfield position. As we saw on Tuesday, his ability to play there now attracts him and keeps him in the team.
I have to say I suspect we are left in relative limbo with the left wing position until an elite option is parachuted in via the transfer market. Until then, Eze, Madueke and Dowman should look at the position as a launching pad for their Arsenal careers. This is the lowest bar to clear to get into the Arsenal team.