Journalist Art de Roche believes that Arsenal defender Jakub Kiwior can play a vital role for Mikel Arteta in the Premier League title race this season.
Jakub Kiwior has really found his feet at Arsenal in recent weeks.
The Polish defender arrived at the Emirates Stadium from Italian outfit Spezia in January 2023. In general, he has only been sporadically used by Mikel Arteta, certainly in Premier League terms, since he joined the club.
Kiwior’s preferred position is in the heart of the defence. However, in William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, Arsenal currently boast what is arguably the best centre-back pairing in the top flight of English football. Therefore, Kiwior has been very much stuck in a back-up role behind that duo.
He has been handed plenty of minutes at left-back, though. With Oleksandr Zinchenko and Takehiro Tomiyasu both being injury-prone, whilst Jurrien Timber has been sidelined with a long-term issue, the 24-year-old has had to fill-in on the flank on a number of occasions.
The left-back role at Arsenal these days typically brings with it a unique set of instructions. Rather than being asked to push forward up the touchline and provide an overlapping run on the outside of the winger in an orthodox fashion, since Zinchenko’s arrival at Arsenal, Arteta has deployed an inverted left-back.
This means that the full-back on that side of the pitch is expected to drift into the middle of the park and become an auxiliary midfielder of sorts. Kiwior often struggled to adapt to this interpretation of the role. As a centre-back by trade, already being deployed out of position at left-back, to navigate the vagaries of playing an inverted role seemed to be an ask too far.
Has Jakub Kiwior now proven his worth to Arsenal?
Due to Zinchenko and Tomiyasu currently still being out of action, Kiwior has started the Gunners’ last three Premier League matches. In this run, though, Arteta has allowed Kiwior to play in a manner more associated with a traditional left-back.
To compensate for this, right-back Ben White has adopted an inverted role instead. White has thrived since this change.
Meanwhile, Kiwior has been so impressive at left-back that there is now a debate as to if he should keep his place in the starting XI ahead of the Ukrainian. Zinchenko may well be fit to play a part against Sheffield United on Monday. It will be fascinating to see if Arteta sticks with Kiwior for that match.
Art de Roche has now given his verdict on the 19-cap Poland international. Speaking on The Arsenal Beat podcast, he said, “obviously, the main thing with any Mikel Arteta player is versatility, which he’s shown that he’s got. I guess what may go under the radar is his pace, as well as his size.”
“Kiwior, with that size, and also with that pace, is able to recover well but also just put his body in front of the ball…what’s really starting to impress is his passing range…When you’re look at the squad going for a title, those sort of players who you can depend on to have at least a 6 or 7 out on 10, are worth their wait in gold.”
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