Arsenal vs Tottenham: The other trio that we need to see

Arsenal fans want to see our epic front three deployed, and rightfully so, but there is another trio we should be excited about that we haven’t seen yet either.

Ask any Arsenal fan out there what trio they want to see most and they’ll tell you they want to see the front three of Nicolas Pepe, Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The potential is so tantalizing that it blinds me to our defensive woes, because there’s no way any opposing defense can stop that attack.

But there’s another trio I’m almost just as excited about. And thinking in terms of Unai Emery’s 4-3-3, you can, by process of elimination, conclude that I’m talking about the only other trio out there—the midfield.

I harp on this a lot, but last year, despite the amazing partnership of Laca and Auba taking center stage, another big talking point was the successfulness of the midfield three when deployed (which wasn’t very often).

With Granit Xhaka, Lucas Torreira and Matteo Guendouzi, the Gunners had a high intensity, high octane midfield with a central control tower that could spray the ball from touchline to touchline.

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It won us a lot of points by commanding the most important theater of play.

We know what that trio can do, but I’m talking about an improved version of that trio. Because while I love Guendouzi and can’t wait to see him every time he touches the pitch, his youthfulness still gets him in trouble at times. And while Joe Willock has been tremendous, he needs to show more growth too because he is counted on as a starting XI regular.

The midfield three I’m talking about is Xhaka-Torreira-Ceballos. And given Torreira’s slowness to return to the starting XI, it’s a trio we haven’t been able to get a glimpse of yet. This is a midfield three that has everything. It has ball control, tenacity, presence, security, defense, attack. You name it, it has it. And it’s also the kind of midfield that can win you matches. Again, seeing as how rookie Guendouzi, Torreira and Xhaka could do it, then Xhaka-Torreira-Ceballos can do the same.

Especially with even better attacking options to feed in front of them.

There is a very distinct possibility that we see the double bank of epic trios against Tottenham, and I could not be more excite about it. The potential to see Pepe-Auba-Laca ahead of Xhaka-Torreira-Ceballos is something to drool over.