The Arsenal youth debate: How to fit them all in?

Arsenal

That was The Arsenal. 5 goals. Clean sheet. Rolling over a poor Norwich team and taking them to the cleaners. I love to see it. You love to see it. We all love to see it. And how about those youngsters. The four up front. Saka, Odegaard, Martinelli and Emile Smith Rowe.

We may just have the best crop of young footballers in Europe. I’m not even taking the piss. It’s a hot take. But a real one. Check out my thoughts here. They have added to the nice performances of last season with numbers. Goals and assists. ESR is in 4th= in the League for goal scoring. Just quietly Mo Salah is having quite some season with 15 already. Does he get a new contract ala Auba and Ozil and bust??

With ESR performing so well from the bench recently it begs the question how do we fit him in as well? All 4 attacking youngsters deserve to play. They all contribute their own unique part of the puzzle.

Dave Seager’s article for Gunners Town was a good thought provoking post that inspired today’s blog. Martinelli up top with Odegaard to replicate the famous Henry and Bergkamp combination. There’s a lot to like. A lot. How could you not really, if only just by reminiscing on good times of years gone by.

It could work extremely well; Martinelli has shown that he has improved in his ability to control the ball and look after it under pressure. In fact he has improved ten fold in this regard. There is however still a long way to go. Possibly the future. But I also feel it is not quite the time.

It is no coincidence that we have become an infinitely better team since Lacazette has replaced Aubameyang. That ability to have a stable support at the top to circulate the ball, bounce off and hold up play if we are pinned back is just something we cannot give up at this point. Martinelli may transition to number 9 over the next few seasons but I think it will have to wait.

The 433

So the next option would be to play the 433 with ESR and Odegaard either side of the DM. Sounds enticing and will bring huge amounts of creativity and end product. I like it. It would be a sign of intent and a further push towards Arteta replicating the colossus of Pep football.

Importantly it allows us to keep that central figure up top to ensure there is always an element of verticality. Structure and stability from the top. The question though is does that leave us lacking structure further back. Are Odegaard and Smith Rowe ready to form a midfield combination that becomes compact defensively? I have no doubt they work hard on the press and will win the ball back. But football at Premier League level (and beyond) also requires being tight, and not allowing space in front of the back 4.

This I am not sure those two are ready for. It would be a huge risk, and again something that Arteta has realised is possibly too soon to commit to regularly at the moment. The current system is working so well at the moment. Why risk changing it too early? We are on track for the top four. Let’s keep it that way.

Status Quo

Going through it all logically I realise what the problem is that I am faced with; and probably that of the entire fan base for that matter. We are thinking with the heart not the head. We want Saka, ESR, Martinelli and Odegaard to all start because they are performing well and they are young players. However there is nothing wrong with rotating the four of them depending on opposition.There really is nothing wrong with that.

All the big clubs have plenty of good players, and rotate. City have endless amounts of players. Bayern have Gnabry, Sane, Coman as wingers to name a few. Chelsea have Mount, Pulisic, Hudson Odoi, Ziyech etc as AMs to rotate.

It’s a good sign we are having this debate. But it doesn’t necessarily need to be had. Structure, stability and team performance is what will ultimately lead to a consistent season. Let’s encourage depth. In fact let’s celebrate it. ESR will be back in from the start against Wolves I am sure of it.

We may even see Eddie Nketiah too. Or you never know we may see a little more of all four youngsters played together with the fixture list piling up.

Whatever the case as long as we are playing good football that is enjoyable to watch and pulling in the points we will all be very happy.

Kia Kaha.