Santi Cazorla popped into Mikel Arteta’s office after Arsenal’s 1-0 win over Ipswich, which took them to second in the Premier League table.
What the Spanish manager wouldn’t give for six months of his countryman’s two-footed talents right now, after losing Bukayo Saka for “many, many weeks” due to a hamstring injury.
Saka has had surgery on the muscle he tore against Crystal Palace before Christmas and his manager expects him to be out for more than two months, meaning the Gunners will have to find a way to keep up their challenge for multiple titles without him.
It is important for the Arsenal project as a whole to do so, as Declan Rice succinctly put it afterwards.
“To make that next step, to be among the elites, that’s what you have to do: you have to win stuff,” he told Amazon Prime Video. “We can keep winning games, but it means nothing if you don’t win anything at the end.”
Arsenal cannot take their foot off the pedal even for a few minutes. Liverpool looked like they might slip up against Leicester, only to come from behind and eventually win comfortably 3-1 on Boxing Day. The Gunners looked asleep at the start of both halves against Ipswich and it was the only time the Tractor Boys threatened to score, but failed, meaning Kai Havertz’s opener was enough.
There will be tougher days though. Arsenal set a Premier League record (albeit records for such things only go back seven years) for possession in the first half, yet their 83 per cent of the ball only resulted in two shots on target.
Nevertheless, Arteta will persist with Martinelli on the right, and hope that time breeds familiarity and fluency.
Former Premier League manager Roberto Martinez pointed out: “I would be a little bit disappointed that we didn’t see a connection between Jesus and Havertz just to say ‘that’s going to be the answer to not having Saka’.
“In general they played well but they were not opening Ipswich that well.”
Rather than provide that singular answer to life without Saka though, Arteta would rather provide a more holistic one.
“I think the replacement of Saka is going to be the team, and that unit in particular, and having minutes together and asking different things,” Arteta said.
“There was moments that it flowed really well, and there was moments that we can still have some work to do there and improve it and adapt to the qualities of the individuals. And I’m certain that we’re gonna do that.”
But how?
Adapting to Martinelli’s new job
The role of Havertz will be crucial in Arteta’s “brand new unit” which will act as the auxiliary attack in Saka’s absence. The boss seemed confident this would be the plan, with Havertz floating in behind striker Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli switching over to the right and Leandro Trossard, who provided the assist against Ipswich, replacing the Brazilian on the left.
Arteta too acknowledged that the two players are stylistically different, and his team would need to adapt.
“Gabi needs people around him,” Arteta said. “He needs constant threat. He needs to be always in the last line when the ball is on his side, that he has relationships there and people close to him, because he’s very intuitive.
“If you isolate him too much, he’s going to suffer, especially playing with a natural foot on the right. And that’s things that we can evolve and improve.
“We cannot isolate him the way we isolate Bukayo sometimes. We have to do it differently and it takes time.”
Using the Odegaard crossing threat
Saka is a left-footed winger on the right, who increasingly threatens both shoulders. Martinelli deployed on the right has to target the byline more than the England international does, making him marginally more predictable – although Kieran McKenna, known as one of the Premier League’s sharpest tactical minds, insists it is not that dissimilar a picture for defences.
“I think it is different,” he said. “Having a left footer on the right side opens up a lot of different angles. When you come inside the pitch, it opens up the in-swinging crosses and different passes into the box.
“[Without Saka], Arsenal still have that threat with [Martin] Odegaard.
“He drops to the touchline a lot, so they still have that in-swinging cross threat, that reverse pass threat from the right-hand side.
“Martinelli is obviously a more linear runner in that position, and Saka has maybe the versatility to deal with both.”
Nwaneri is not the answer
It is now that Arteta’s tactical stubbornness plays against him. With the Ipswich game still in the balance, he refused to bring on the much-vaunted Ethan Nwaneri, 17, on the right-hand side, who many see as a future stalwart at the Emirates and who was the just about the only attacking option on the bench.
“He needs to understand a few things,” Arteta had said before the game.
“Obviously again for Ethan there’s been a massive step in the last 12 months. But he’s on the journey with us and every time he plays I think he changes games for the better, so that’s a really good sign.”
Arteta’s notoriously hard-to-earn trust is still clearly building.
A deal may be done
What about a new signing then? Cazorla is (only just) retired but the January transfer window opens next month. A gap may be stopped up by bringing a planned move up by six or 18 months, perhaps for Wolves’s Matheus Cunha, who could play anywhere in the front three, or as a No 10.
Arteta did not rule out mid-season business.
“We don’t know. We will see,” Arteta said.
“Hopefully we won’t have any more injuries.
“We have Raheem [Sterling] probably less time out than we expected.”
It is certainly awful timing that Sterling, who is being paid by Chelsea to play for Arsenal, picked up a knee problem just days before Saka left Selhurst Park on crutches. He was Arteta’s preferred option to slot in with the talisman out and it would have given the 30-year-old the chance of a sustained role in the team: since making the switch across London, he has only once started consecutive games (completing neither) and in total and has played all across the front line in three different positions. He has only played 90 minutes for Arteta once, and all of a sudden the manager is desperate to have him back.
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