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£30m Arsenal star criticised for surprisingly poor international display ahead of the North London derby
It has certainly not been a quiet international break for Arsenal, Mikel Arteta has already experienced injuries to two key players ahead of the upcoming North London derby.
Riccardo Calafiori’s injury, which he picked up whilst starring for Italy, shouldn’t be serious, although the Arsenal defender may now be better-suited to a spot on the bench.
Martin Odegaard seems almost certain to miss the clash with Tottenham Hotspur given the ankle injury he suffered whilst playing for Norway earlier this week.
Arsenal might turn to Ethan Nwaneri to replace their captain, however, Arteta does have a few different alternatives too.
One of those is left-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, who has often played as a midfielder in his career, and did so again for Ukraine on Tuesday evening.
Oleksandr Zinchenko struggles in midfield role for Ukraine
Unfortunately for Arteta, Zinchenko was handed a 6/10 and criticised by Ukrainian media after their 3-2 defeat away to Czechia.
Zinchenko played 85 minutes in the defeat, and lost the ball 13 times according to , even if he was also able to create two big chances for this side.
That being said, local outlet found it hard to find too many positives in the Arsenal defender’s display, stating that they hoped Arteta wasn’t watching.
They wrote: “If Mikel Arteta watched this game of his protege, it would be better if he didn’t.
“Because before Arsenal’s next match, there are now a lot of questions about whether Zinchenko will take the role in the centre of the pitch because of personnel losses.
“A very thin border from failure was managed this time, because sometimes the decisions of a player with a generally “bright” head caused real surprise.”
Arsenal can still trust Zinchenko to start vs Tottenham
Zinchenko has taken his fair share or criticism during his last year or so at Arsenal.
It’s evident that the full-back doesn’t quite have the defensive credentials to manage against elite wingers, his skill-set is much better suited to distributing the ball in the middle.
And although Zinchenko seemingly struggled for his country on Wednesday night, there’s still merit to deploying him in Arteta’s midfield on Sunday.
The Gunners will be missing a few leaders, Arsenal may even turn to Gabriel Jesus as captain, and therefore the inclusion of Zinchenko’s passion could be beneficial.
Some tough calls for Arteta to make, who may be inclined to follow Germany’s plan with Kai Havertz by moving him back into midfield once again.