Arsenal: 3 key player partnerships in Arteta’s lineup

Football can be viewed in a number of different ways. What is most important to some may feel like a minor aspect to others. Then you have Arsenal who are currently being perceived through nothing other than negativity – and that needs to change.

Does one see how teams attack or defend? How they are with the ball or how they are without it? How individuals prosper or how the collective functions? Whichever lense takes priority from the individual’s viewpoint, team performance is reliant on a key trait: partnerships.

Some players never pass to one another. Some barely see face-to-face. Yet all of the best sides in history boast partnerships across the pitch and Arsenal need to start forging their own if they are to be successful once again.

Signing six new players in the summer window including a goalkeeper, right-back, centre-back, left-back, central midfielder and playmaker, Arteta has to act fast to integrate his acquisitions in a way that brings on-field joy.

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3 key player partnerships in Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal lineup as he bids to forge a team capable of averting the current slide down the Premier League table

There are numerous factors that Arteta will have to rely on in order to sculpt a winning side just as there are decisions of his own making that will doubtlessly impact whether or not he lasts the season as manager.

But having bought new players it isn’t a simple matter of talent plus talent equals success. Those he’s signed to play certain positions have to complement those they’re in close tandem with and across the Arsenal team there are three of these player link ups that need forging and solidifying rapidly.

It’s down to Arteta to find systems and methods to allow partnerships and on-field relationships to flourish, just as it’s on the players to bond, communicate and learn each other’s games.

Across the entire pitch there are connections to strengthen but in three areas of the starting lineup there are three key player bonds to forge.

1. Ben White & Gabriel

Last season Arsenal effectively played with two different central defensive partnerships: Gabriel and David Luiz or Rob Holding and Pablo Mari.

They were not successfully interchangeable and the inconsistency of selection was even highlighted by Mari who called for more stability in that regard. Arteta became synonymous with chopping and changing his sides from week to week. Anyone would have thought he used to work with Pep Guardiola.

That now needs to stop. Spending a combined £77m on Ben White and Gabriel, this should be Arsenal’s starting pairing for every Premier League fixture they’re available for.

How the dynamic will work will be interesting to see play out. Naturally, having two more athletic centre-backs who can cover grass quicker than their other teammates allows Arsenal to squeeze the pitch and play with a higher line.

White is expected to be the more progressive ball carrier of the two with his trademark ventures out from defence, while Gabriel blends his progression in both ways. With one more aerially secure than the other there needs to be communication on set pieces in both boxes, which Arsenal are currently struggling at, and as front-footed defenders they need to strike a balance in pressing and dropping off.

Together they have the tools to flourish but given their lack of experience playing with one another it will take time to develop.