Arsenal: Time to start those who impact

The substitutions — Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira specifically — that Unai Emery made against West Ham United changed Arsenal’s team completely. It’s now time to start them.

Unai Emery has only had three competitive matches in charge of this current crop of Arsenal players. He has only been working with them since the start of July. For some, those that have been injured or at the World Cup, it is even less than that. He is still formulating his plans and determining what his best team and system is.

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In three matches, Emery has not played the same team twice and has made all three substitutions by the 75th minute in each, indicating that he is still working out what his best starting XI is and recognising when he has made an error.

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And on the evidence of the first three matches, especially the latest, a 3-1 win over West Ham United that was far more concerning than the scoreline suggests, there are two players in particular that I believe should now be starting based on the impact that they have had on the team when Emery has introduced them from off the bench: Alexandre Lacazette and Lucas Torreira.

I’ll start with Lacazette. The Frenchman was brought on at half-time against West Ham. Immediately, Arsenal were able to work their way into more advanced areas of the pitch because of the superior hold-up play of Lacazette in contrast to Aubameyang. His touch was much better, he is stronger with his back to goal, and he is extremely intelligent in knowing what spaces to take up so that he does not become isolated.

The presence that Lacazette provides also frees up Aubameyang. Playing from the left flank, Aubameyang has a greater opportunity to dart in behind opposing defences, running the channels in the left half-space and wide-space, fed by angled through passes from central positions. Against West Ham, the team just looked far more potent and fluent with Lacazette spearheading it.

Similarly, when Torreira came into the midfield, immediately, everyone around him upped their game, especially Granit Xhaka. Xhaka had struggled to influence the game with his passes into advanced areas and his lack of athleticism and defensive awareness were again exploited at the other end. But with Torreira’s introduction, Xhaka immediately was freed to dictate play from a slightly more advanced position, unshackled from the defensive responsibility of anchoring the midfield.

Torreira also stemmed the free-flowing counter-attacks of West Ham that were causing Arsenal major trouble. In 35 minutes, he totalled one successful tackle, one clearance and one interception, was consistently busy in the heart of the midfield battle, and allowed those around him to play with that greater element of freedom and control.

It’s time for those that make an impact to start, Lacazette in the striker position, Torreira at the base of the midfield. Emery is still evaluating his players and his system, but I’m not sure he can ignore their game-changing influence anymore.