Pundit says Mikel Arteta could drop ‘special’ Arsenal star and go all-out attack vs West Ham

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Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has been rotating his side a lot this season.

The Gunners’ squad depth is the best it has ever been in the Emirates Stadium era, and that has already proved beneficial.

Arsenal have seen substitutes score a goal in each of their last five games in all competitions, which shows just how strong their bench can be.

The focus ahead of a game, however, is on the starting line-up, and Adrian Clarke thinks Arteta could go all-out attack against West Ham United on Saturday.

Mikel Arteta could drop Martin Zubimendi to field a very attacking Arsenal XI vs West Ham

Martin Zubimendi has started every game for Arsenal in the Premier League and the Champions League this season.

The Spaniard joined the Gunners from Real Sociedad in the summer, and he has had a fine start to life in the famous red and white.

Zubimendi, hailed as a ‘special’ player, will almost always be one of the first names on Mikel Arteta’s team sheet at Arsenal, but he could be given a break when West Ham come to town.

That’s according to Adrien Clarke, who claimed on talkSPORT’s Inside Gooners Extra that he can see a scenario in which Zubimendi is left out and Arteta would go with a midfield trio of Declan Rice, skipper Martin Odegaard and Eberechi Eze.

He said: “I could actually see a scenario in this game, if Arteta is really confident, he might give Zubimendi a rest, play Rice as a six and Eze and Odegaard as twin eights, with two wingers and a striker, which would be even more attacking.

“It would be an interesting starting XI. That will tell us a lot about how confident or otherwise Arteta is feeling.”

What could happen if Arsenal go all-out attack vs West Ham

West Ham are not in a good place right now, and their game plan on Saturday will be to sit deep and hit Arsenal on the counter-attack.

For that reason, the Gunners could do with just one deep-lying midfielder and two number 10s like Eze and Odegaard. Rice can cover the base of the midfield on his own.

That will make Arsenal slightly more vulnerable to quick counter-attacks, but if they get their own attacks right, they could blow West Ham away.

Eze and Odegaard are both extremely creative, and those two feeding a front three of Gabriel Martinelli, summer signing Viktor Gyokeres and Bukayo Saka would be frightening.

We don’t know if Arteta will do this against West Ham on Saturday, but we hope this attack will be used at some point this season.