Arsenal: Pablo Mari issues easily fixable

Pablo Mari has made two starts in his Arsenal career. There are plenty of positive signs, and the negative issues that have surfaced are easily fixable.

Pablo Mari arrived at Arsenal on a six-month loan deal in January. While having been signed by Manchester City previously, the majority of the Spaniard’s experience has come in Brazil or the second tier of Spanish football. As such, it was very difficult to predict how he would adapt to the Premier League and the step up in quality he would face.

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In Portsmouth, Mari faced League One opposition in his first outing for the Gunners, helping the team to a consummate 2-0 victory to qualify for the FA Cup quarter-finals. In reality, the quality of attackers he had to defend would have been no higher than those in Brazil.

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But on Saturday against West Ham United, Premier League veteran Michail Antonio showed precisely how challenging English top-flight strikers can be to deal with. Antonio is a physical, pacy, intelligent attacker, who is ferocious on the counter-attack. With space to run into and collect passes from his teammates and the power to bully defenders by backing into them and rolling past them if they commit to tightly, the West Ham attacker was a real thorn in Mari’s side. He pressed Mari into hurried clearances, ran him down the line on several occasions, and pulled him this way and that to open up space on the break.

After the match, head coach Mikel Arteta was asked how he feels Mari has settled into life in the Arsenal first team. After all, Mari has played two matches and the team has kept two clean sheets in both. And Arteta, while refusing to accept the obviously flawed clean sheet-based logic, was keen to praise the initial performances of his new centre-back:

"“He is doing well, he’s adapted really well – it is not an easy league and a central defender, in my opinion, to play in the Premier League is one of the toughest positions to play for any foreign player. But he is very willing, he is learning and he has a good experience and understanding with his team-mates.”"

Where Mari flourished was in possession. Only Dani Ceballos made more passes. Mari maintained a healthy 86% pass accuracy rate. He completed 16 long passes, which is an enormous number and more than double than any other outfield player bar Granit Xhaka, who had the second-most with nine. It was his defending that was a little suspect.

However, while Antonio caused problems, Mari proved that he is capable of handling the West Ham attacker, and others that will come by extension. He simply needs time to adapt to the increased physicality and pressure of the Premier League. English football is faster than any other in the world. Players at ‘lesser’ teams are higher-quality than in any other league in the world. There is a unique intensity, tempo and physicality to the Premier League, and for defenders who are used to time and space like Mari is in Brazil and Spain, it takes time to adapt.

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Does this mean there is nothing to worry about and Mari is a sure-fire bet to be a brilliant centre-back? No, and if he does not handle the physical play of Premier League strikers, he will never be a suitable starter at Arsenal. But it does mean that the problems that surfaced against West Ham are easily fixable. For now, Mari just needs time.

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