Senior figures and coaching staff at Arsenal have been exceptionally impressed by Martin Zubimendi in his first few months in North London, Arsenal Insider understands.
Zubimendi arrived at Arsenal for £55 million over the summer, although the deal was agreed months in advance.
The Spaniard enjoyed an exceptional final few seasons at Real Sociedad, prompting interest from a host of clubs throughout Europe, including the Gunners and Liverpool.
He’s certainly hit the ground running in his new surroundings, and many at the Sohba Realty training ground cannot believe what they now have at their disposal.
People at Arsenal are ‘purring’ over Martin Zubimendi
Zubimendi has settled in at Arsenal effortlessly.
The midfield metronome has arrived in a new league, leaving his boyhood club for the first time in his career, and has instantly looked at home.
Playing almost every single minute of the Gunners’ league season so far, Mikel Arteta clearly trusts Zubimendi to perform against the best teams.
The manager isn’t the only one who holds a lot of faith in Arsenal’s new number six.
Speaking to Arsenal Insider, transfer expert Graeme Bailey revealed that people around the North London club are ‘purring’ over Zubimendi.
“The club are absolutely purring over Zubimendi at the minute,” he said.
“They’re absolutely loving what he’s doing. They do accept that people were maybe critical of the lack of creativity in the midfield, but I don’t think Arsenal are too bothered generally because they believe they have one of the best midfields in the world.
“People in England forget how good Odegaard is, but when you take him out of the team, they look worse. Arsenal cannot wait for a Rice, Zubimendi, Odegaard midfield to play together regularly, because they feel it can match anything in the world.”
Arsenal’s best midfield have only spent 141 minutes on the pitch together
As Bailey alluded to, the plan for this season for Arsenal in midfield is clearly to play Zubimendi, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard together.
The trio have the perfect blend of qualities that make them an excellent well-rounded midfield trio.
However, thus far, the three have spent just 141 minutes on the pitch together across all competitions. The 83 minutes they played together against Manchester United were also arguably somewhat dysfunctional.
Since then, the three players have only played as a trio for 38 minutes against Leeds and 20 minutes at the end of the Liverpool game at Anfield.
Odegaard has been injured, and thus, they haven’t been able to build chemistry and the automatisms between them. When they do, it could all click for Arsenal.
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