Arsenal: The one thing preventing Arteta’s 4-3-3 formation change

Granit Xhaka Being at Arsenal Prevents 4-3-3 Ever Happening

Granit Xhaka. So long as he is at Arsenal, Arteta will never, or at least can’t, go into a 4-3-3.

Absolutely, categorically, not a No. 8, the prospect of Xhaka holding a midfield alone is the kind of proposition that opposition sides salivate at. Turning slower than the grass beneath him grows, any single pivot, whether a 4-3-3 or a 4-1-4-1, can’t operate with the Swiss playing the No. 6.

Too slow across the turf and not agile enough to cover spaces laterally, he, and Arsenal, would get torn to shreds in the Premier League.

So, just don’t play him then. Right?

Signing a new one-year contract, as much as almost everyone would like to see Xhaka fazed out of the side with the emergence of Sambi and the prospect of a 4-3-3, Arteta’s adoration for the Swiss makes this an unthinkable prospect: if he’s fit, he plays.

It’s his own personal non-negotiable; whatever the circumstances, Xhaka is in the team.

Were Arteta to begin the transition into a 4-3-3 (having no European football and signing six of his own players over the summer would make this the ideal time to do so) then it becomes an even more bizarre decision not to sell Xhaka even at the price offered.

If he is to become the second choice holding midfielder then whatever ‘value’ he had in the previous window is only going to plummet drastically being on the bench most of the time – and adding him being nearly 30 by then. While the extra year of contract was illogical anyway, it’d be baffling were this to be the plan this season.

Never put anything past the manager, however; his decisions make for interesting viewing and what hasn’t happened yet can rarely be discounted entirely.

But he loves Xhaka. He is never going to settle for a spot on the bench. Arteta views the midfielder in a way few others do. There is no 4-3-3 with Xhaka at the club because there is no Arsenal under Arteta without Granit Xhaka.