“If you isolate him too much, he’s going to suffer, especially playing with a natural foot on the right. And that’s things that we can evolve and improve.
“We cannot isolate him the way we isolate Bukayo sometimes. We have to do it differently and it takes time.”
Using the Odegaard crossing threat
Saka is a left-footed winger on the right, who increasingly threatens both shoulders. Martinelli deployed on the right has to target the byline more than the England international does, making him marginally more predictable – although Kieran McKenna, known as one of the Premier League’s sharpest tactical minds, insists it is not that dissimilar a picture for defences.
“I think it is different,” he said. “Having a left footer on the right side opens up a lot of different angles. When you come inside the pitch, it opens up the in-swinging crosses and different passes into the box.
“[Without Saka], Arsenal still have that threat with [Martin] Odegaard.
“He drops to the touchline a lot, so they still have that in-swinging cross threat, that reverse pass threat from the right-hand side.
“Martinelli is obviously a more linear runner in that position, and Saka has maybe the versatility to deal with both.”
Nwaneri is not the answer
It is now that Arteta’s tactical stubbornness plays against him. With the Ipswich game still in the balance, he refused to bring on the much-vaunted Ethan Nwaneri, 17, on the right-hand side, who many see as a future stalwart at the Emirates and who was the just about the only attacking option on the bench.
“He needs to understand a few things,” Arteta had said before the game.
“Obviously again for Ethan there’s been a massive step in the last 12 months. But he’s on the journey with us and every time he plays I think he changes games for the better, so that’s a really good sign.”
Arteta’s notoriously hard-to-earn trust is still clearly building.
A deal may be done
What about a new signing then? Cazorla is (only just) retired but the January transfer window opens next month. A gap may be stopped up by bringing a planned move up by six or 18 months, perhaps for Wolves’s Matheus Cunha, who could play anywhere in the front three, or as a No 10.
Arteta did not rule out mid-season business.
“We don’t know. We will see,” Arteta said.
“Hopefully we won’t have any more injuries.
“We have Raheem [Sterling] probably less time out than we expected.”
It is certainly awful timing that Sterling, who is being paid by Chelsea to play for Arsenal, picked up a knee problem just days before Saka left Selhurst Park on crutches. He was Arteta’s preferred option to slot in with the talisman out and it would have given the 30-year-old the chance of a sustained role in the team: since making the switch across London, he has only once started consecutive games (completing neither) and in total and has played all across the front line in three different positions. He has only played 90 minutes for Arteta once, and all of a sudden the manager is desperate to have him back.
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