Arsenal may have only lost one league game so far this season, but something doesn’t feel right at the Emirates this term.
Indeed, while Arsenal are getting decent results, they’re not playing the free-flowing, beautiful football we saw them play last term.
They easily could’ve dropped points against the likes of Nottingham Forest, Manchester United and Crystal Palace this term, while they were lucky not to lose against Chelsea. If we’re being harsh, we’d say that Arsenal are scraping by at the moment.
Many of Arsenal’s players don’t look as good as they did last term, and one player who Ian Wright has highlighted is Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Speaking on the Kelly and Wrighty Show, the pundit says that Zinchenko’s form has dropped off, and he believes that the Ukrainian is missing Granit Xhaka as the Swiss midfielder used to help him quite a lot in his hybrid full-back/midfield role.
Zinchenko is missing Xhaka
Wright gave his verdict on the 26-year-old.
“Thomas Partey’s injury has been a massive blow to us. Zinchenko’s form has dropped off, missing Xhaka and the way he helped him, we’re missing that dynamic in the game, Martin Odegaard has fallen off a little bit, it just feels like there’s a lot of disjointedness going on,” Wright said.
Not been replaced
Xhaka was brilliant for Arsenal last season, and while the Swiss midfielder was coming towards a natural end at the Emirates, the Gunners seemingly made a mistake in selling him.
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Indeed, Xhaka hasn’t been adequately replaced in this side.
Declan Rice isn’t playing the Xhaka role right now – working more as a Thomas Partey equivalent, while Kai Havertz has been out of sorts ever since arriving in north London.
Xhaka was so important to this Arsenal team, and as Wright says, he really helped Zinchenko last season, and the Gunners’ performances have very much suffered after selling the midfielder.