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Gary Neville shares how unused Arsenal substitute v Aston Villa is actually going to be ‘fantastic’ this season
Arsenal are celebrating another victory having beaten Aston Villa 2-0 just a week after beating Wolverhampton Wanderers by the same scoreline.
Arsenal had problems with Unai Emery’s Villa la🎐st season and will have been desperate to prove that they had learned from two defeats.
Villa had their moments against Arsenal and even forced David Raya into a staggering save to deny Ollie Watkins with the goal gaping.
Arsenal took their chances though as Lea🧸ndro Trossard and Thomas Partey found the net after that Watkiꦕns moment.
Two wins, four goals, no goals conceded – Arsenal have enjoyed a positive first week of💫 the new Premier League season.
Gary Neville on Oleksandr Zinchenko
Clean sheets have almost become the norm under Mikel Arteta.
Arsenal have been able to shake off the ‘soft’ tag defensively and they🔴 are truly the gold standard for defending not just in the Premier League, but acr🎃oss Europe too.
Arteta has great options at his disposal and that was on display before kick-off at Villa🌳 Park on Saturday.
Oleksandr Zinchenko was dropped from the starting XI despite a decent performance against Wolverhamptoജn 𒅌Wanderers.
In came Jurrien Timber – despite Arteta hinting at playing him in midfield – with Zinchenko stuck on the bench, not even called upon when Timber was 🌼substituted.
New signing Riccardo Calafiori was given the nod instead as he came o๊n for his Arsenal debut at left back.
Zinchenko w💦ent from a starting role to being completely unused against Villa but Gary Neville still sees a big role for him this season.
Speaking on the , Neville suggꦇested that Zinchenko will be truly ‘fantastic’ against bottom-half Premier League teams.
Neville doesn’t want that to sound ‘disrespectful’, but believes Zinchen🌄ko’s technical ability 🔯will come in very useful against teams who sit in against Arsenal.
Neville added that Zinchenko ‘looked a bit disappointed’ at being left on the bench but believesﷺ he wiꦛll ‘contribute enormously’ this season.
“Zinchenko will still play his role; when you’re playing against – a﷽nd I’m not being disrespectful – but the bottom six teams, the bottom 10 teams, and you know you’re going to have an absolute mountain of possession at home and you’re going to have to work hard to probe and poke the ball through in tight spaces, Zinchenko is going to be fantastic in those matches,” said Nevilleඣ.
“He looked a little bit disappointed, Zinchenko, in the start of the game because he wants to play but again, he will contribute enormously with 𝕴his spirit, with his personality♏ but also on the pitch as well in certain games,” he added.
Zinchenko can be very useful for Arsenal
Timber may now be in the box seat for Arsenal’s left b🐭ack role, but his introduction against Villa shows that the position isn’t locked down.
Arteta may be minded to chop and change his options with Tim🧸ber, Calafiori and Zinchenko fighting it out at left back.
Zinchenko will be the man for certain games, possibly in the situations Neville e♍xplained.
Perhaps Zinchenko could even operate in midfield at times, just as heℱ does for Ukraine.
That seems a little unlikely with Mikel Merino set to join Arsenal but Fabio Vieira is re-joining Porto and Emile Smith Rowe has already gone.
All Zinchenko can do is keep working hard and wait for his chance; that was his situation at Manchester City and wit🌼h Arsenal now attempting to snatch top spot, it may be a similar scenario for Zinchenko this term.