Bukayo Saka has certainly been a force to be reckoned with this season. The way the Englishman has come through for this Arsenal team—creating chances, scoring, and assisting goals—if it weren’t for him, Arsenal wouldn’t be where they are.
Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard have been really disappointing this season. They were expected to compete for a starting spot on the left wing, but they haven’t been good enough to warrant a starting place.
Their failure to step up puts Arsenal in danger of sustaining a run for the league.
As much as we feel the need to sign a top winger in the winter transfer window, the club may not be able to afford both a top winger and a top striker. All focus may be on signing a striker, and in the end, Martinelli and Trossard may just need to step up.
While speaking on Sky Sports, ex-PL star Clinton Morrison has asked the duo to pull up their socks. “They rely too much on Saka,” Morrison told Sky Sports News. “Other players have to step up to the mark. You look at Martinelli, you look at Trossard, these other players need to get goals.”
Surely he wouldn’t be asking them to do that if he didn’t believe they were capable.
In the last two seasons, we’ve had a big say in the title race, and our left wing has contributed massively to that. During those runs, Martinelli and Trossard were somehow balling. In the 2022/23 season, it was Martinelli (36 games: 15 goals, 5 assists), and in the 2023/24 season, it was Trossard (33 games: 12 goals, 1 assist).
Arsenal cannot rely on Saka and Ødegaard as only offensive outlets; we need our left wing to wake up and stake their claim in our title charge.
Darren N
ADMIN COMMENT
So here are some simple rules which I must insist commenters follow….
You agree not to give any personal abuse to other Arsenal fans. Everyone is allowed to hold their own opinions even if you disagree with them. It COSTS NOTHING TO BE POLITE TO OTHER ARSENAL FANS.
CALLING ALL ARSENAL FANS! Anyone who would like to contribute an Article or Video opinion piece on JustArsenal, please contact us through this link…
Simply put, there is no chance we will come close to winning the PL if we don’t sort out our left flank.
We gone from a point where the argument was “why do we need a striker when so many players in the team are scoring”, to a point where we are relying so heavily on Saka to score goals and win us games.
Kia,
You have got the problem. It is the left flank!
Why is it a problem, when it wasn’t, when we had Xhaka supporting on the left flank, with the duo interchanging? Could it be a tactical glitch in the team set up?
That the team has concentrated on defenders, is more of the reverse of what Wenger perfected; midfield and attack. How I wish the good defence, supplemented the midfield and attack! With both midfield and attack malfunctioning, whichever attacker is brought in, in place of the duo, the left flank shall be firing blanks.
First Martinelli, then Trossad and now Sterling. Why have 3 wide players flopped in that position in a season? What is the the common denominator? The answer lies in tinkering with the LB and CAM wide left and nothing more. Right side we have Ben/Timber, Ode and Saka, no issues. Play Partey RB and you have no overlaps. Remove Ode and Saka’s form dips. Either the back up/bench players are not up to the mark or too much tinkering has disrupted the football chemistry between players. Mikel needs to look back and see last winter the team balance was right and we went on a roll but eventually lost the EPL, but there was a comeback and a decent fight which has not been replicated this season in spite of new additions. Maybe Fabio/ESR/Elneny are being missed.
I would say the tactics are more responsible for the glitch than anything else.
How many LB have we tried, how many combinations of LB, LCM, LW have we had and still little to nothing.
Can’t blame the players, spend well over 100 million on several players over last couple seasons, still blame players and not truly question the tactics and strategy on the left.
@Durand.
Thank you…👍🏾