Arsenal Didn’t Buy a Left-Sided Superstar, So They’ve Doubled Down on Their Right

Arsenal are by some distance the most right-heavy team in the Premier League when it comes to how they attack. So, do they even need to sign a world-class left winger?

The problem with being as good as Arsenal is that, when it comes to the transfer market, it’s difficult to improve.

There will be few teams who will have any sympathy. The rivals who spent hundreds of millions of pounds this summer, desperately scrambling to try and claw their way back into relevance, won’t really want to hear about how the poor, suffering champions struggled to find players they could sign who would improve their first team.

That’s not entirely true, given Arsenal did bring in Christos Tzolis, Ezri Konsa and Bruno Guimarães, each of whom has already contributed in some significant way since signing this summer. But while Tzolis has seamlessly slotted in on the left flank, he was relatively unknown when he arrived, and he is still unproven over any noteworthy period at Premier League level, even if the early signs are promising.

And that meant that with Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Martinelli both departing, much of the transfer-window narrative around Arsenal was their unsuccessful hunt for a star name on the left wing.

There was talk of a serious move for Vinícius Júnior; of being outpriced for Morgan Rogers and Bradley Barcola – both of whom moved to Premier League rivals – and of persisting a little too long with their feint hopes of convincing Julián Álvarez to join (though he isn’t really a left winger and may never have even played there for Arsenal had he joined).

In the end, Arsenal were, in the eyes of many, left short, and if they were going to slip up this season, a failure to land a world-beating left-sided forward would have been high up on the post-mortem agendas across the internet.

But Arsenal had just won the title without – it can probably be agreed – a world-class left-sided attacker. Martinelli and Trossard are both very decent forwards, good enough to play significant roles and make key contributions for the eventual champions, but they weren’t really the focus of Arsenal’s attacks.

In fact, Arsenal attacked down their left less than any other team in the Premier League last season, with just 31.8% of their touches in the opposition’s half coming in the left third of the pitch.

And on the other flank, they already have a genuine superstar in Bukayo Saka, who they have based their attacks around for years. It was no surprise that last season they had 41.7% of their touches in the attacking half down their right flank. Only West Ham used their right side more, and they had a similar talisman down that wing in Jarrod Bowen.

Now, this wasn’t only because of Saka. He missed a chunk of last season through injury, and Arsenal didn’t change how they played when he was absent. The right, with Noni Madueke or Max Dowman playing on the wing, was still their focus.

But with Saka 100% fit again and looking back to his best this term, Arsenal have doubled down on their right-sided approach. Over three Premier League games so far, they have had 47.5% of their attacking touches down the right flank, and just 27.4% down the left. Those are perhaps unsurprisingly the highest and lowest respective proportions of all teams in the Premier League this season, and both by some distance.

They have leant into it heavily. Against Chelsea on Sunday, Kai Havertz constantly moved out to the right to help overload that flank, often taking up positions even wider than Saka. It was a position on that wing from which he came infield to score Arsenal’s equaliser.

And in Wednesday night’s win over Napoli, Martin Ødegaard sometimes looked like he was playing on the right wing; he and Saka both found one another with their passes more than they did any other teammate.

Arsenal’s passing network from that game shows just how much they moved the ball to their right, and they were hugely effective, generating their highest expected goals (4.05) on record (since 2012-13) in a Champions League game. They deserved to win by far more than a single goal.

Even Tzolis, fresh off the bench, popped up on the right, moving over there to help complete a 29-pass move by providing the assist for Ødegaard’s winning goal.

It’s worth noting that while, again, Saka was at least part of the reason that Arsenal attacked down their right quite so much, that goal came after he had been withdrawn. As was the case when he was absent last season, Arsenal did not alter their approach without their star man.

At the same time, though, it’s not as if they don’t also carry a threat from their left. Tzolis now has four assists in his first five competitive appearances for Arsenal, and left-back Riccardo Calafiori has been a revelation with his unique, new attacking role, moving inside Tzolis to attack the area and almost provide a centre-forward presence when Havertz moves away from his position. Only Havertz and Saka have made more high-intensity off-the-ball runs ending in the penalty area in Premier League games for Arsenal this season than Calafiori (eight).

The Italian also has two assists to his name, meaning Tzolis and Calafiori, Arsenal’s left flank, account for six of the nine assists registered by Arsenal players in all competitions this season.

But they are not the centrepiece of this Arsenal team. Calafiori is averaging 39.6 touches per 90 in all competitions this season, which is the fourth-lowest of all Arsenal players behind goalkeeper David Raya (38.8) and strikers Havertz (35.7) and Viktor Gyökeres (15.3). Tzolis is slightly further ahead on 52.9 per 90.

Right-back Ben White has been exceptional, meanwhile, following a summer of some speculation as to whether Arsenal may try to upgrade on him. And he has been heavily involved, as one of only four players who has started all five games so far, averaging 68.4 touches per 90 – far more than Calafiori on the left.

So much more of Arsenal’s forward play is coming down their right compared to their left.

It has been incredibly effective, too. Arsenal have five wins from five by an aggregate score of 10-1. Chelsea are the only team who have really caused them any problems, or looked at any time like they might beat them.

But Arsenal’s focus on the right flank does provoke some questions. First of all, is there any suggestion of an overreliance? If an opponent shut down that flank, would Arsenal struggle to find a way through? That is something that we are yet to discover, simply because they have been far too strong for any opponent, which, in itself, indicates that it may be strong enough to complete all of their objectives for the campaign.

Secondly, what will happen if or when a key player on their right misses a period through injury? Arsenal were notably and understandably less effective in open play when Saka was absent last season, while Ødegaard appears integral again and has had a few injury problems over the last couple of years. Again, that isn’t something we can answer yet, but could cause them problems.

But finally, and perhaps most notably given the talk around their summer business, would they even be better off with a big-name winger on their left?

Someone like Vinícius, for example, would not be happy to be anything like an afterthought. He’d want to play on the left and he’d want the ball to come to him at every opportunity. His presence in this team would have absolutely altered how Arsenal play.

And as well as being far, far cheaper, Tzolis is doing an excellent job so far, holding the team’s width to stretch the opposition, and playing the killer pass when he is involved more effectively than anyone else in the team.

He won’t maintain his current levels of return for the whole season, and when the squad is stretched, he might not look quite so comfortable as the months wear on, but fortunately for him, Arsenal are so strong on the other flank that that may not be a problem.

It felt to some like a disappointing window for Arsenal because they did not break the bank for a superstar left-winger, but on the early evidence of their right-heavy start to this season, they might be better off for it.

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