Arsenal: Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney change everything

Arsenal fans may be excited for the combined season debut of Hector Bellerin and Kieran Tierney, but are they excited enough? Methinks not.

Sheffield United may be the first time that Arsenal fans get to see their dynamic fullback duo in action together on the grand Premier League stage. They have been making midweek appearances together, to great aplomb, but what really matters besides the Premier League?

That was the idea when we signed Kieran Tierney. Here we finally had an fullback opposite Hector Bellerin who could essentially do for us what Bellerin had been doing on that right hand side for years.

Bellerin has been tremendous in his time here, he has immensely improved and there is still so much room for improvement. It’s that ability to combine with capable wingers and make it a one-two punch that makes him so deadly.

But it’s always really been isolated to that one side of the pitch. Nacho Monreal was good in his own right, but it was a different kind of good. He didn’t really provide the same punch that Bellerin did. Plus the winger on his side was… rarely a winger at all.

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In the current state of the club, there are two capable wingers on each flank every single match. Nicolas Pepe and Bukayo Saka. When Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang moves out there, it’s the same story. No matter who, it’s an actual winger, or at least someone who plays the role the way a winger should play it.

These are two fullbacks who will be utilizing that partnership to recreate that one-two punch I spoke of earlier. That’s when fullbacks and wingers are at their deadliest. Not isolated, taking on defenders one-on-one, but combining, overlapping, running off the ball and working together. That’s how things work, and the Gunners are embracing it now that they have two fullbacks that play the role in such a way that all they need is time to build that rapport with their wingers and then we’ll be cruising.

Ainsley Maitland-Niles was starting to get into it more and more, but Sead Kolasinac, for whatever reason, felt like he was struggling with building a chemistry out there. It was more a solo effort with him.

That’s why Tierney and Bellerin change things. This is the real deal for the long haul, and we are going to be playing touch line to touch line football from here on out… as long as they can stay healthy.