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“I feel like a lot of games I’m facing a double team with two guys on me and it’s the same for Gabi. It’s happening in every game. I keep watching all my games back trying to find a solution, what I can do better.
“In the end I just feel like I need to understand that this is how it’s going to be this season and I just need to deal with it and keep finding a way like I did today. That’s what I need to keep doing.” These were the words of Bukayo Saka after the late 1-0 win over Brentford on Saturday.
Arsenal’s attack is heavily reliant on Saka and Martinelli, partially because both are world class performers, partially because, for all his qualities, Gabriel Jesus is not a regular killer in front of goal and also, because Arsenal don’t have much in reserve on the flanks.
Leandro Trossard is an excellent player but has a very different profile to Saka and Martinelli, while Reiss Nelson is trusted for little more than dead minutes. Arsenal tend to need Martinelli and Saka on the pitch for close to every minute when a game is still alive.
Of course, when teams double up on a player, logic dictates that he will have a colleague free elsewhere. Arsenal’s task this season has been to find that spare player. Kai Havertz was bought, in part, to provide that undetected threat. Because what Arsenal are finding is that the spare man is often in the penalty area.
Following his late back post header against Brentford, Kai Havertz revealed that working the ball to him at the far post is something that Arsenal work on a lot. “We train this routine quite a lot in training. I know Bukayo (Saka) or Martin (Odegaard), love to play these balls.”
The far post is proving to be a bountiful avenue for Arsenal, as Ahmed Walid analyses in-depth in this piece in The Athletic. In his analysis of the Brentford victory on Arsenal.com, Adrian Clarke points out that Havertz’s eventual winner and Leo Trossard’s first half strike narrowly ruled out for offside came…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2023/11/the-spare-man/
Author : Tim Stillman
Publish date : 2023-11-30 13:00:17
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