£30m Arsenal player boldly admits Mikel Arteta has made him feel like ‘nothing’ recently

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One member of the Arsenal squad has gone public about his struggles over the 2024/25 season.

It was a testing year for the entire Arsenal squad, despite there being so many high points. 

Amid the promotions of academy duo Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri, injuries within the squad were rife.

A number of players struggled with injuries over the season, piling the pressure on Mikel Arteta to adapt, but one player’s dissatisfaction about the campaign came as a result of an entirely different reason. 

Oleksandr Zinchenko left devastated by Arsenal snub

Oleksandr Zinchenko has royally gone from hero to zero at Arsenal, which is a shame. 

The Ukrainian’s £30m transfer from Manchester City in 2022 represented so much more than Arteta merely bolstering his defensive options.

Zinchenko raised the bar at Arsenal, arriving alongside Gabriel Jesus, two players with multiple Premier League winners’ medals in their possession.

His arrival helped Arsenal announce themselves as real challengers for the Premier League title, but it only led him to the beginning of the end of his time at the Emirates.

Last season, Zinchenko was trusted with only five Premier League starts, something he struggled to process.

Writing in his autobiography, Believe: The Autobiography, Zinchenko aired his upset regarding how he’s been disposed of by Arteta at Arsenal.

“I was basically out of the starting XI altogether, bar a few isolated matches. In pure personal terms, it was easily the worst season I ever experienced as a professional,” he wrote.

The snub from the starting XI made the defender feel like ‘nothing’, as he struggled to come to terms with Arteta no longer having use for him.

“A player who doesn’t play is nothing. It’s one thing when your body lets you down. That can happen. But going from one of the established players of the side to an unused sub is much harder to deal with.

“The sense of rejection you feel if your manager no longer believes in you can take the stuffing out of you, even if you’re the most resilient guy on the planet.”

It was a bold and devastating admission from Zinchenko, who is likely to leave Arsenal this summer. 

Zinchenko didn’t stand a chance as Arsenal progressed

Zinchenko is considering seeing his contract out, but such would be against Arsenal’s preference, who want to avoid letting the Ukrainian leave as a free agent at all costs. 

The player’s struggle over the past year signals the need for change, something he will surely be granted this summer by switching clubs.

Still, it’s a deeply deflating situation for the defender to find himself in, as he clearly communicated.

As Arteta realised that his Arsenal squad could challenge for the league title, he also realised what it took to be up there with the best.

The boss packed his squad with profiles of peak physicality, replacing Zinchenko with the likes of Riccardo Calafiori, Jurrien Timber and Lewis-Skelly.

Zinchenko has never been that player, with his skill doing all the talking, but, as he’s found the hard way, such has no use at Arsenal anymore.