Arsenal suffer a huge blow to title hopes after the recent losses while Nuno Tavares is busy proving Mikel Arteta wrong.
The Gunners entered the season as one of the title contenders for the season alongside Manchester City and Liverpool. They have the squad to make it to the top and added a few more amenities for the title charge over the summer. However it hasn’t panned out the way Mikel Arteta or any Arsenal fan would have wanted to. After 10 matches they sit 5th in the table with 18 points. Recent run of form has been so bad that they have fallen from staying close to City to behind Nottingham Forest and Chelsea. A single point from the last 3 matches is something that doesn’t match the credentials for a title contender. Arsenal are playing with a makeshift defense which composes players all defensive in nature along with new signing Riccardo Calafiori.
While Mikel Arteta is sorting out his defensive conundrum in the English capital, Nuno Tavares ‘the unwanted’ is setting the Italian capital on fire.
ARSENAL’S DEFENSIVE DILEMMA
Looking at the Arsenal defense that Arteta has lined up in the recent matches we can see that the center half duo of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes has been brilliant. But just look at the full back positions. Jurien Timber, Ben White, Riccardo Calafiori and Zinchenko are the players he has used. Out of the four only Zinchenko is a natural full back while the rest are center backs. They are mostly defensive in nature but something can do wonders in the middle of the pitch. Anyway in the double pivot formations used by clubs nowadays it’s not a huge problem to not have an attacking full back. But when your competitors Man City and Liverpool have top order full backs and defensive line, you are focused on setting up a makeshift defensive line.
The problem with the makeshift defense is that, when you lose a small piece in the jigsaw everything just crumbles down. That is what has happened for Arsenal in recent games. They lost Saliba against Bournemouth and went on to lose the match. He was again absent for the Liverpool match where they dropped points again. Again Calafiori was absent against Newcastle so they had to settle with Thomas Partey at right back and again they failed. These points dropped may hamper their title hopes towards the end of the season.
On the other hand Arteta might have made a blunder in snubbing Nuno Tavares as he hits the ground running in Rome.
NUNO TAVARES FUTURE AT ARSENAL
Lazio manager Marco Baroni has unlocked the hidden potential in Tavares. The Portuguese is currently leading the Serie A assists charts with 8 assists in the 8 matches. Some astonishing stats for an Arsenal reject. In contrast to what he managed to conjure up under Mikel Arteta (1 goal and 2 assists) stats taken from Transfermrkt.com. The difference here is that he has given more attacking freedom and more game time.
Despite this impressive form with Lazio it is less expected that we can see Nuno Tavares back in an Arsenal jersey. The philosophy that surrounds the game at Arsenal currently doesn’t suit the profile of Tavares. Or we can say that the Portuguese is not going to fit into the game plan deployed by Mikel Arteta. This is not the Arsenal that Taveres came into, It has reached new heights and even though the player has developed we don’t see a way back.
If Tavares continues the way he has started the season, it is for sure that some big club would snap him up or even Lazio would make the transfer permanent. That would be a huge boost to his confidence after feeling unwanted at the Emirates. Tavares’ career can continue to progress in Italy or elsewhere, where he is more appreciated and utilized effectively.
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