Arsenal summer business: Decisions in defence

One of the club’s biggest problems since the days of Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, Kolo Toure, and Martin Keown has been their defence. Heading into the summer window knowing that reinforcements simply had to come in, Arsenal has welcomed in two new players in Ben White and Nuno Tavares.

Both featured in Arsenal’s 2-0 loss to Brentford on the opening day with many criticizing White’s performance. Several times he was bullied off the ball and looked out of sorts. He was targeted aerially and failed to cope.

Let’s not forget it was his first proper game for the club and if we are being honest, his partner in Pablo Mari was a liability all night, offering not help at all. Gabriel is head and shoulders above Mari and will bring the best out of White. The Brazilian looks set to be Mikel Arteta’s first-choice to partner the £50m man in the heart of Arsenal’s defence, with Rob Holding and Mari likely to be fill-ins at best.

Nuno Tavares has shown some promise since arriving from Benfica and the fact that Arteta brought the defender on to replace Calum Chambers instead of Hector Bellerin says it all. In reality, both Chambers and Bellerin would be moved on in this window if possible.

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Arsenal decisions in defence as Mikel Arteta eyes third signing to bolster his back four in summer transfer window

Tavares isn’t in line to start against Chelsea at right-back despite offering so much more going forward than both Chambers and Bellerin, but much more is needed defensively. This isn’t in reaction to his start to life at Arsenal, and indeed all the noises that have come out of Portugal.

What the signings of White and Tavares have done is give the Gunners a bit of depth in positions that needed it the most. When Kieran Tierney went down injured last season, the left-back position was a carousel for players.

Granit Xhaka was tried and did OK when he was deployed, but that took him out of the midfield where he is quite obviously best suited. Then there was Cedric. Much like Xhaka, he filled in amicably but again wasn’t the same driving force that Tierney was.

What this highlighted was that the Gunners needed a bonafide No. 2 at left-back. Sead Kolasinac was sent on loan, so he was unavailable, yet he, like Cedric and Xhaka, is not the answer as a backup left-back.

https://twitter.com/SkySportsStatto/status/1426254753483431942

With Tavares, Arsenal now has a backup with potential, promise and development potential to sit behind Tierney. Perhaps what is most valuable when it comes to Tavaras is that he is both aggressive on the ball and versatile. As we saw on Friday night, he came on with ten minutes or so of the Premier League opener to go and actually put in a solid shift at right-back.

The Portuguese defender is just as good with either foot which is rare for left-backs and this could see him play on the right side of defence if no other options are brought in during the last few weeks of the window.

He told everyone he likes to shoot with his right. He wasn’t lying.

So, with only two players brought in to fix what has been Arsenal’s Achilles heel, surely there has to be one more addition: a right-back. Get that and then the defence takes on a significant improvement from the previous campaign.

While the Gunners’ summer business has been rather underwhelming at this stage, the imminent arrival of Martin Odegaard will alleviate that somewhat. However, much more has to be done defensively and getting players out is just as important as getting players in.

While Arteta is not without his critics, defence has funnily enough been his most marked improvement on the team. Arsenal concede less chances, leak less goals and have been vastly more secure at defending set pieces. With a few more additions this summer, that may long continue.