Mikel Arteta owes a thank you to Marcelo Bielsa for the role that Ben White is now able to play for Arsenal.
Mikel Arteta reinvented how Ben White operates tactically within the Arsenal team on Sunday.
Usually, the right-back follows a fairly orthodox set of instructions for his role, and is tasked with getting forward up the touchline to support and combine with Bukayo Saka on the flanks. White often makes an overlapping run on the outside of the winger, putting himself into a good crossing position.
The Arsenal left-back, regularly being Oleksandr Zinchenko, tends to provide an inverted option, habitually drifting in-field to become part of the midfield unit when the Gunners are in possession.
However, with Zinchenko sidelined for Sunday’s trip to West Ham, and his replacement Jakub Kiwior being ill-suited to an inverted role, White was given the task of bolstering Arsenal’s numbers in the middle of the park.
It is fair to say that this tactical tweak worked, and took the Hammers by surprise. White’s shift to the inside created space for Saka, which he exploited mercilessly. Arsenal put West Ham to the sword on Sunday, winning by a 6-0 margin, and that was in large part made possible by the fact that Saka was given the room he needed to take the hosts’ defence apart.
Why Ben White was ready for new Arsenal role
However, it should not be a surprise that White was able to adapt to this inverted role so seamlessly. As reported by The Standard, in his time at Leeds United, the 26-year-old defender was often asked to play in midfield in training by then-manager Marcelo Bielsa. This grounding and education as a midfielder stood White in good stead to help Arteta’s “masterstroke” come off without a hitch in east London.
It will be fascinating to see if Arteta continues to ask White to drift into the middle of park during matches, even once Zinchenko has been restored to the side. There is no reason to think that he and the Ukrainian cannot alternate that role within games, with one coming inside whilst the other stays wide. This would make the Gunners a less predictable proposition for opposition teams to face, whilst allowing both Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to benefit from the additional space that being backed-up by an inverted full-back affords.
White has played down his importance to Arsenal and his own quality before, but this match was another example of why his versatility and tactical flexibility make him such an asset to Arteta.
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