I assume so, too. Arteta has always seemed to try to reward goals immediately with a start. (Reiss after Bournemouth, Jesus earlier this year, etc.)

Where do guys see Nwaneri play when Saka is healthy? I think both definitely will need to be in the lineup for our best 11.

For me, I keep Saka in his normal RW position. I put Nwaneri at R8, where Odegaard is now. His close control and passing is very midfieldery to me and he'll be in a great position to get on his left foot and curl shots in as he likes to do.

is great but he doesn't take enough shots for me, plus he can play almost anywhere on the pitch in midfield. I'd play him at L8 with Rice/Zubmendi/Partey at 6.

That's how I see it, how do yall see it?

You wanna bench MO for an 18yo or you talking about shifting him to the left?

Shift to the left, not bench. I want to move MO to the left side of the midfield in the Left 8 position, next year it could look like this:


LW: New LW(Nico Williams)/Martinelli/Trossard

Striker:New Striker/Havertz

RW: Saka/Nwaneri

L8: Odegaard/Havertz/Rice

R8: Nwaneri/Odegaard

6: Rice/Zubimendi

LB: MLS/Calafiori

LCB: Gabriel/Calafiori

RCB: Saliba/White/Timber

RB: Timber/Whitw

Keeper:Raya/Neto

Why the left side? He and Saka play well together and I don't think he's going to start taking more shots on the left side just because. His game is more about control and facilitating play for others with his passes.

I'm not against him moving to the left, I just don't think it does anything for us.

Dont see that happening......

1) MO/Saka/White have too much chemistry
2) MO is too left-footed to push him to the left. Would be fine for passing but would take away most of his shot opportunities
3) MO & Nwaneri in MF together would require a destroyer at 6 as neither of them are good enough defensively. While I think Rice is a very capable 6 he is no destroyer and for us has looked much better as a b2b 8.
4) we aren't buying Zubimendi to be a backup and he wouldn't agree to come here for that either

Gotta remember that he doesn't turn 18 for another month. It is entirely possible that he spends another season as a rotational player at W & CM/AM. Personally think he looks better on the wing vs MF. I think when Saka returns we see atleast a couple matches with Nwaneri playing LW and if it goes well maybe we don't spend on a starting caliber W in the summer and instead let Nwaneri backup Saka and compete with Marti on the left.

Tomiyasu has confirmed he has now undergone surgery on his knee.

“It has been the toughest period of my career and it carries on a bit more, but I won’t give up.” pic.twitter.com/shBoG37Ewn

— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) February 18, 2025

He was such a breath of fresh air when he joined the team.

Situation with Tomi is such a bummer. When healthy, he played well and helped Arsenal. Was really hoping to get him back and have some quality depth. Just can't stay on the pitch because of all the injuries.

The benefit of moving MO to the left is allowing both Saka and Nwaneri to play on the right. Nwaneri takes a lot more shots than MO and already looks to be one of our best shot takers, and his favorite is going to his left and curling with his left foot. Saka does that too.

Moving MO left won't affect our offensive output much because he can still pass well there from there and he hardly shoots anyway.

Agree on OM having good chemistry with Saka but I think Nwaneri would tell. Agree we would need size and strength at 6 with 2 small 8s, and I would add that we would want a striker with a bigger profile, like Havertz or a Sesko type.

My main point/question is: how did we get both Saka and Nwaneri on the pitch at the same time, because they both will soon be 2 of our best 4 players, if they aren't already. We will both for our best 11. I don't see Nwaneri playing LW.

Maybe this will fix a lingering issue but I agree. I think he will be leaving Arsenal soon, but wish we could keep him and build his value back up before selling.

MO/Nwaneri/Rice won't work in MF unless either MO/Nwaneri significantly improves their D or we are playing a team with a very weak O. Considering we just spend 100m on Rice, I dont see us dropping him to accommodate Nwaneri. That means the only way Nwaneri plays with Saka is by replacing MO or playing on the opposite W. Given MO is the capt and there is a drop in our offense when he is out, Nwaneri 's best bet to start when Saka comes back is at LW.

Rice is a really really really good #6 defensive midfielder. I think there will be plenty of games and game states where our world class back 4 + Rice is pretty well sufficient.

But I think we're probably a year away from really needing to worry about this. I think Nwaneri can and should still be "managed" next year.

Also, until Odegaard can find his shooting boots again, you have to think about having enough offense on the field.

Rice is sitting here today with 3 goals over 30 total starts.

We are perpetually worried about striker, have questions about our left wings, and then have two inconsistent scorers in MO and Rice playing the #8 roles.

While I agree Rice is a good defensive MF, he is not a good single pivot 6, atleast not how Arteta wants them utilized. There is a reason Rice has been played as an 8. Its not because of a lack of options at 8. Its because Arteta views Partey as a better option. Even last year with Partey hurt, we played Jorge at 6 instead of Rice most of the time. There are situations where Rice at 6 works but most of the time he makes a much better option as a B2B 8. And while he only had 3 goals, he also has 8 assists and is in the 86th percentile among MF for xnpG+ xA.

I agree with you, against the teams where we have most of the possession and they use a low block it would be enough (that's a lot of teams). It wouldn't work against Liverpool or City.

chjoak said:

---

While I agree Rice is a good defensive MF, he is not a good single pivot 6, atleast not how Arteta wants them utilized. There is a reason Rice has been played as an 8. Its not because of a lack of options at 8. Its because Arteta views Partey as a better option. Even last year with Partey hurt, we played Jorge at 6 instead of Rice most of the time.

---

Huh? Rice was bought to play 6 and started most of the first half of last season there with Odegaard and Havertz/Veiria/ESR/Trossard in front of him at 8.

He moved to 8 when Havertz moved to striker (the Liverpool game) and before Partey was back from injury. When Partey came back in March, he rode the pine for a month. Partey didn't start games until like late April when Havertz was established as a striker and it was clear Arteta didn't trust ESR or Vieria.

I agree that we bought Rice to be a 6 but that doesn't mean he is or is going to be one. Per Whoscored, he has 1 start at 6 this season and 29 at 8. On top of that we are again pursuing Zubimendi who is a 6 and at 26 he costs too much to be coming in for depth. If Arteta saw Rice as a 6 he wouldn't be pursuing a starting caliber 6 this summer after spending 100m on Rice just 2 summers ago.

Like Insaid before..... Rice is a good defensive MF but he lacks certain qualities to operate as a single pivot 6. On top of that, he has proven to be very effective as a B2B where he has shown to be better offensively than expected without letting his defensive responsibilities drop off.

Pretty big one for Liverpool today at Villa, a loss and we're squarely back in it

Arteta does like a big/defensive type player at Left 8 like Rice/Xhaka. He was bought to play 6 but I don't think his progressive passing was good enough (I think it's getting better now though).

Likewise Havertz was brought in to play Left 8 and be more attacking yet have that big body and counter pressing Arteta wants in that position, but that didn't really work out either, but I could easily see him trying that again when we get a new Striker.

I'm just musing that it's very possible in the very near term that Saka and Nwaneri are our 2 best players, and they've got to both be on the pitch. Maybe 2 of our best 4 at worst. I don't see either not playing on the right side because of the way they attack. But this is a good problem to have.

Elliot from Arsenal Vision podcast suggested that Nwaneri plays RW and Saka moves to LW because he's good enough to do it and we wouldn't lose much if anything.

I disagree, I think you keep Saka RW, move Nwaneri to R8 and MO to L8. Or maybe you move to a double pivot, make Nwaneri the 10. I don't really know but MO is very versatile to me, doesn't bring nearly as much offensive firepower as Nwaneri, and is already tasked with dropping back deep, picking up the ball and progressing from deep.

It's a good problem to have to figure out where to put all our insanely talented players.

Honestly I think we will simply see more rotation when Saka is back. Coming off a hamstring, you simply rotate Saka and Nwaneri most of the time. He's the Saka rotation we've been begging for. Maybe you'll see Ethan come on as a LW sometimes. He's still only 17. There are still tons of matches to play.

Like others have said, its a defensive hit to fit them all in the same starting lineup and Arteta doesn't do that. Maybe when we are pushing for a winning goal or something.

That said, Odegaard may be able to play slightly deeper as he gets older (kinda like Modric), but he's still fairly young.

I understand your basic premise and I agree that we will soon need to figure out how to keep Nwaneri on the field. I just don't see a 3 man MF with both MO & Nwaneri working well against top half teams. They would shred the bottom feeders but wouldn't hold up to City, Pool, etc.... Personally think the answer lies in Nwaneri playing W unless MO moves on. I think Arsenal Vision actually has a good point. Saka is very good with his right and likely doesn't have a drop off playing LW. However, if a Saka/Nwaneri W combo is on the cards, I would prefer that both perform well from both sides so they can interchange throughout the match.

RE MO's productivity...... let's not forget that (a) he had 8 goals last season, 15 the year before and (b) he had a significant ankle injury early in the season. Personally I don't think he is 100% yet. Having injured my ankles multiple times during my playing days I can attest to just how long it takes to fully recover, especially if you come back early. Also, if you look at his production based on per 90, he is still in the 80th percentile for MFs in non-penalty goals.

I think you are right for the rest of this season. I'd also bet that atleast 2-3 games we see both Saka & Nwaneri on the field playing W together. Unless Arteta decides that Nwaneri is ready for a starting role, I think next season he likely racks up approx 1500-2000min rotating at both Ws & LCM. Keep in mind that would be more minutes than Trossard has had each season since joining and would be 3-5x Nwaneri's current EPL min this season.

Yeah, I agree with everything that you and Wangus said. Should definitely be a lot more rotation, hopefully Arteta will be more willing to do that with all the hamstring injuries. Saka has played too many minutes the last couple of years. Also agree that Nwaneri and MO would be too light in midfield for Liverpool and City and big UCL sides. I also agree that Odegaard could/should get back into form as far as scoring more goals.

I feel like our back 4 is elite, with the potential to be the best in the world if not already. I also love Raya. If we can land an elite Striker and then figure out how to integrate Nwaneri and Saka I think we can be one of the best offensive sides too. But that of course is the area of the pitch where we can see the most improvement.

Strangely Attractive said:

---

Should definitely be a lot more rotation, hopefully Arteta will be more willing to do that with all the hamstring injuries.

---

I'll believe it when I see it.

I think we're having a few different conversations here. Short term, Nwaneri will be a rotational player. And he might still be that to start next season.

Bigger, longer term picture, Rice got into playing the left 8 role because Havertz is (1) required at striker; (2) Havertz played better as a striker than a #8; and (3) we tried three other guys at left 8 and two of them aren't at this club anymore for a reason.

Rice has no doubt played the role well, but we were also pretty successful with him playing #6 for like 70% of last season. Are there going to be a substantial number of games or substantial game states where we can succeed with him at #6 and allow us to play him at #6 plus two more natural attacking midfielders in front of him and without changing our current system? I think the answer is "of course."

Do I also expect a midfield of Zubimendi-Rice-Odegaard pretty often? Also, of course.

chjoak said:

---

I agree that we bought Rice to be a 6 but that doesn't mean he is or is going to be one. Per Whoscored, he has 1 start at 6 this season and 29 at 8. On top of that we are again pursuing Zubimendi who is a 6 and at 26 he costs too much to be coming in for depth. If Arteta saw Rice as a 6 he wouldn't be pursuing a starting caliber 6 this summer after spending 100m on Rice just 2 summers ago.

---

I don't think Zubimendi is coming in for depth. I also don't know that his price tag (50 million-ish pounds) is "unbenchable."

I'm sure we'd all agree, now more than ever, that we need a lot more than 11 "starters" on the roster. We've achieved it, finally, on the back line and for the moment have good depth at defensive midfielder.

We're trying to get there in the front-5 positions. There's going to be rotation and different games and game states that will call for different arrangements. And that's a good thing if we have the roster to deal with it.

I hear you and agree to a point. I think the problem is Arteta didn't really like the 2 deep, as in the 2nd option was too big of a drop off.

In positions where we don't (Martinelli/Trossard at LW, MLS/Calafiori at LB, Timber/White at RB, Rice/Partey at 6), he did actually rotate.

So as we keep adding talent that is at least in the ballpark of the established starters, he will rotate more. At least that's what I'm hoping. Also the rash of injuries has to have taught a lesson…

We will play either PSV or Feyernoord in the Round of 16. They knocked out the 2 Italian Giants

Always nice to see City drop out too. Now they just need to play well on Sunday