Arteta sent ‘really bold message’ to £32m Arsenal star during draw to Bayern Munich

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Journalist Adrian Clarke feels that Mikel Arteta sent a very clear message to one of his Arsenal stars against Bayern Munich.

Mikel Arteta made some bold selection calls when Arsenal welcomed Bayern Munich to the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday. 

Jakub Kiwior and Gabriel Martinelli, at left-back and on the left wing, respectively, both came back into the Gunners’ starting XI for this Champions League quarter-final first-leg clash. Neither player had started either of the club’s last two matches.

Arsenal struggled to create much at all down their left-hand side in the first half. Instead, they focused their attacks up their right flank. It was from this channel that Bukayo Saka put the hosts ahead early in the game. 

Equally, right-back Ben White was the only Arsenal defender who looked entirely composed and confident in this opening period, as he got forward well on multiple occasions.

In an effort to bring more balance to his side, Arteta made a change at half-time, bringing on Oleksandr Zinchenko in place of Kiwior.

What Oleksandr Zinchenko gave to Arsenal against Bayern Munich

Kiwior has generally impressed as a left-back when required to fill-in in that position this season, despite naturally being a centre-back by trade. However, the Poland international struggled to cope with the threat posed by Leroy Sane on Tuesday. 

On top of that, the 24-year-old is not the most effective player when on the ball. Whilst Zinchenko has his flaws as a defender, he does bring a great deal of additional creativity to Arteta’s team when he is on the pitch and in possession. 

The Ukraininan performs the left-back role in an inverted fashion, habitually drifting into the middle of the park where he can act as an auxiliary playmaker of sorts. He gave the Gunners a greater presence in the midfield zone and helped them to wrestle control of the game.

At times this season, the former Manchester City man looked to have fallen down the pecking order at the Emirates Stadium. There are certainly games that he is not so well-suited to playing in.

Mikel Arteta’s message to Oleksandr Zinchenko

However, in this hugely important continental clash, Arteta turned to Zinchenko when he also had Takehiro Tomiyasu available to him on the bench. Adrian Clarke believes that the Spanish coach was sending a message to the £32 million full-back with this decision.

Speaking on the Handbrake Off podcast, Clarke said, “what I will say about the Zinchenko sub, because I was expecting Tomiyasu at half-time, is that it sent a really bold message. It sent out a sort of statement, and it said ‘actually, I trust you Zinny. I trust you to defend, but I also know that you can add so much to us going forward.’ I think he did, in a way…Zinny sliding in there [into midfield] created that little overload…that’s what wasn’t happening in the first half, so I actually think that was a really, really smart substitution from Mikel.”