Martin Keown was extremely enthusiastic watching Arsenal’s new look midfield in action against Burnley this weekend, with Thomas Partey sitting in behind both Emile Smith Rowe and Martin Odegaard.
The Gunners earned their second-straight victory when overcoming the Clarets on Saturday, putting their three league defeats from the opening weeks of the campaign behind them, and while we only scraped a 1-0 win, Keown was pleased with the new system which was put in place.
“I really liked the look of the midfield actually,” Keown told BBC Radio 5Live listeners. “If you look at the manager is setting up the team. If you look at what he had with Guardiola at Man City.
“One player sitting in Partey, and then two players either side in Smith Rowe and Odegaard.
“His piece of brilliance from the free-kick was the difference between the two teams.”
It will be interesting to see if the manager opts to stick with this tactic when we look to take on Tottenham next weekend, despite the fact that Granit Xhaka will return to availability following his three-match suspension for a straight-red against Manchester City.
Did we see enough from our midfield this weekend to believe that this should be the long-term plan? Could Xhaka and Partey both profit from playing in a midfield three?
Patrick
l want to believe that pairing Zaka and Party might be the turning point of Arsenal success in Sunday’s match and that would be very nice indeed.
I think Arteta answered that question when he drop esr for sambi to gain more control of the Game when burnley was pressing us, and then hold our advantaged. I think when we play against harder opposition Arteta would back to 2 cdm and one acm..i just hope there is sambi against Tottenham and no xhaka who would not be completly fit, but i think there Will be xhaka
The Burnley game showed how disjointed the attack was and not one midfielder has a relationship with Auba, i.e. looks for him with an accurate pass. This his to be addressed in January with a creative midfielder who does and has the knack of scoring. Auba worked his socks off without any quality ball. We need to be able to rest players and being in quality from the bench. I’m sure Laca could have come on and helped.