Arsenal were disappointing in their 1-0 victory over Manchester United on Sunday, with new signings Viktor Gyokeres and Martin Zubimendi both struggling on their Premier League debuts.
The Gunners scraped their way to three points thanks to an early header from Riccardo Calafiori, following a Declan Rice corner.
Despite grasping the result that they wanted, Mikel Arteta and his players weren’t satisfied with the level of performance they were able to produce in the north-west.
They’ve unsurprisingly received criticism for this display, with a few individual players facing the brunt of this.
Damien Delaney says Martin Zubimendi struggled against Man United
Gyokeres was underwhelming in his first competitive Arsenal appearance, struggling to make any meaningful impact in the final third.
The discourse has largely centred around the Swede in the aftermath of the clash with the Red Devils, although fellow new signing Zubimendi was arguably as disappointing.
Deployed in a midfield trio alongside Rice and Martin Odegaard, the former Real Sociedad man was often left isolated in front of Arsenal’s back four.
Rice produced a very below-par performance, which didn’t help Zubimendi, who was merely looking to gradually acclimatise to the pace and intensity of the English game.
That said, Robbie Earle was impressed by Zubimendi’s showing, praising the Spaniard’s positional play, which helped liberate Arsenal’s full-backs.
Former Crystal Palace defender Damien Delaney did not echo these sentiments, instead arguing that the 26-year-old struggled to adapt.
“I think Zubimendi looked like he got hit with a train yesterday,” Delaney said on the Football Show podcast.
“I mean, the pace of that game, the regularity with which the ball was changing hands.
“You think of the league that he’s come from, you know, where it’s calm possession, everybody’s building and trying to implement their rotations and things like that. And all of a sudden, that game has just crash, bang, wallop for him and it just seemed to be happening so fast for him.
“Now, everything will settle down over the next few weeks, and I’m sure he will be a top signing, but he couldn’t get that ball.
“He was dropping in to try and get it off the centre-backs and all of a sudden, he was getting smashed.”
Martin Zubimendi’s performance vs Man United shouldn’t be a concern
Zubimendi will typically be deployed next to a physical specimen in Rice.
This should mean he’s not left as exposed as he was against United, and shouldn’t have to cover a huge amount of ground in front of his own defence to ensure Arsenal’s midfield isn’t carved through.
Rice wasn’t himself on Sunday, clearly not physically ready to play in a match of this intensity.
| Martin Zubimendi’s Statistics vs Man Utd | |
| Minutes Played | 90 |
| Ground Duels Won | 3/5 (60%) |
| Tackles Won | 2/3 (67%) |
| Accurate Passes | 39/45 (87%) |
| Key Passes | 0 |
| Touches | 58 |
| Passes into the Final Third | 4 |
| Dribbled Past | 1 |
The England international had something of a stop-start pre-season, which appears to have affected his ability to build his fitness to the requisite level of the Premier League.
With Rice at his best, Zubimendi will be able to focus on the impact he can have in possession, rather than having to constantly cover space and concern himself with defensive work.
Thus, the new signing’s first outing shouldn’t be a concern.
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