Two players carry a heavy load with Kai Havertz supporting them after finding his feet 12 months ago. The loss of all three has blunted the team massively but it is the right flank and the Odegaard-Saka-Ben White axis which is the most notable area of the team.
With White missing through injury as well, Arsenal have not had all three of their main right-side available since the end of November. They haven't all been fully fit since early September. At times there have been two in action but often one has been lacking match sharpness or playing through pain.
More recently only one has been an option for Arteta. With this in mind, it would have been expected that the head coach found another way to play. The reality is that Arsenal have continued doing the same.
Although Myles Lewis-Skelly's emergence as a left-back and left-sided No.8 has opened up new opportunities for Arsenal, most of the moves still end on the opposite side. Ethan Nwaneri's own rise from youth prospect to undroppable first-team player has certainly contributed.
He picked up the baton left by Odegaard and Saka, often filling in for at least one of the league's best players and sometimes both at the same time. The way he has adapted so quickly to elite football has allowed Arteta to continue on with his plans to attack on the right.
Jurrien Timber being natural to that side has helped. Both Thomas Partey and Declan Rice are right-footed, so favour the angles coming across their body to that side.
When it does get there, Nwaneri being left footed and naturally drifting inside helps to facilitate this. He picks up the pockets of space Odegaard likes on the outside of the box and he has vision and maturity beyond his years to create and pick apart defences. We are looking at a small sample size with Nwaneri, and he is still very much at the start of his journey, but he has not been a reason why Arsenal are out of the title race with nine games to go.
Had other pieces fallen into place over the season then Nwaneri may well have been a spark leading Arsenal forward rather than an 18-year-old (who was 17 until last week) holding things together. His quality speaks for itself and there are no better players in Odegaard and Saka for him to learn from.
Lewis-Skelly, meanwhile, has added something extra to a clunky left-side. Between Timber playing on his wrong foot and Riccardo Calafiori's injury-hit start to life in England, Arsenal have become extremely unbalanced.
Timber is not able to play down the line as much when pushed to the left compared to how White can on the right. Calafiori is still getting up to speed with the demands and is stuck between being a centre-back and left-back. In front of them and Mikel Merino isn't answering many of the questions Arsenal had in central midfield.
He does not knit play, drop deep, or take up threatening positions on the ball. He is more of an enforcer but hasn't been able to use his duel-winning or combative attributes enough to make an impact. Merino's best moments have been instead as a makeshift striker.
He is struggling to fill the left-side midfield void left by Granit Xhaka much like Havertz himself did. Merino is a box-to-box operator who is not particularly good in either box and who is best when using his body to win possession.
On the ball he is not fluid and has not been able to crash the box much either. It is no surprise, then, that Arsenal still favour circulation to the right.
In data collected by Hudl Statsbmb, the five most commonly played passes for Arsenal all come with a view to getting the ball on that side. They take the form of a centre-back passing to the right-back, a full-back or wide midfielder playing short just in front of them, another, even shorter pass down the line, then two sets of passes, one on the edge of the box in the right half-space towards the corner flag and another just inside from that area.
What this leaves is a giant space on the left where Arsenal simply are not making passes anywhere near as regularly. This can be seen with other teams such as Nottingham Forest, who are heavily dominant on their left. The same goes for Bournemouth, whilst Liverpool and the reliance on Trent Alexander Arnold is also highlighted.
The thing for Arsenal is that they do not have their best players on the right and yet are still bound to playing that way. It shows two things
For one, the first-choice left-side is less trusted and utilised than a second-choice right-side. And, Arsenal have not transitioned away from turning to their right-side even when everything should point them towards trying the other wing.
The data does not show how effective the right-side is with the ball, it is simply a pattern, but it passes the eye test. Arsenal have not been able to cause danger with their left-side triangles and do not try it anywhere near as much.
The exception is against Manchester City, where Lewis-Skelly, Declan Rice, and Leandro Trossard switched places throughout the game and caused plenty of problems. Those rotations have not been as prevalent before or after that match, though.
Trossard's individual form has played a part in that. He continues to be more impactful as a substitute, whilst Gabriel Martinelli has shown flashes but is more than 18 months removed from being close to his best. He has also been out with injury, further limiting the team in a one-dimensional manner. When he is out there is no speed whatsoever.
Merino has not really found a role yet and Arsenal still look better when Rice moves out to the left with Partey centrally. That has its own issues because Rice is Arsenal's best ball progressor from deep. He is also the best at arriving late to score and he is able to do more than Partey in shielding the defence and working forward under pressure.
Picking him in one spot then leaves a Rice-shaped hole elsewhere. When Partey was at his best, Xhaka was the one on his left and he grew into that marauding spot incredibly well.
Xhaka was able to drift wide, allowing Oleksandr Zinchenko to come into midfield, helping move the ball smoothly through the thirds with positional overloads, and he could also act as the physical cover. Xhaka was built around aggression and power, something he channelled exceptionally by the end of his time.
Now Arsenal have neither on the left. Xhaka's dominance of space and traction engine ball striking is missing, as is his speed in the counter press and legs to gallop into open space either in front or behind him. Arsenal have been left with the worst of both worlds.
They have only one fit left-footer on the left side and it is the out-of-sorts Merino, now being asked to play up front. Calafiori is better at moving forward than Timber but has looked uncomfortable at times.
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