Nuno Tavares’ best Arsenal trait is also his weakest

What a player this young man is turning out to be. Nobody in their wildest imaginations could have envisaged Nuno Tavares getting the nod at left-back over Kieran Tierney this soon into his Arsenal career.

He was the, dare we say, least exciting of all the summer transfers? Knowing Tierney was set in his role meant focus moved towards the £50m centre-back, £30m goalkeeper, £16m starting right-back, £34m creative midfielder, and £18m Belgian.

Being an unknown entity meant that there was something alluring about Nuno, with only some relatively unfavourable reviews from his native Portugal offering any real insight. It’s not that nobody cared about his arrival, it was merely that nobody expected him to play particularly often.

And yet, after another blistering performance against Newcastle, he’s just completed his fifth consecutive start in the Premier League, with the past three all having a certain Scotsman on the bench.

Nuno Tavares has unbelievable unpredictability in his game which Arsenal are seeing the best and the worst of

Handed the nod once again by Mikel Arteta despite enduring a second half to forget at Anfield, the chaos he brings to the team was on show. Absolutely brimming with energy and aggression, the unpredictability he possesses is what has endeared him to supporters.

When he picks the ball up, nobody ever knows what he’s going to do. It’s fantastic.

Such is his technical profile that he can charge his way down the touchline, cut inside on the underlap a la Joao Cancelo, and do everything else in between. It’s not always pretty, but it’s almost always tough to defend against.

It comes across as if he’s just making it up on the spot. Such spontaneity is any opposing defender’s nightmare and having this variety in his attacking movements is his greatest strength at this point. Just as it can also be his weakest trait.

His first half showing demonstrated his haphazard decision making. While diversity of movement and action is brilliant in getting him into the final third, being unsure of what it is he wants to do when he gets there can result in some bizarre choices on the ball.

His wayward shooting against the Magpies was a perfect example; having a pop with his left to no avail, he then thought why not try with the right and vice versa. Being so brilliantly two-footed means he has more passing angles and even greater unpredictability, and maybe him having so many options on the ball is muddying his thought processes.

Losing possession a combined 50 times in the past three matches is an indicator of the pandemonium he can cause, for better or for worse.

There is so much to enjoy about his style. It’s bombastic and wherever he is on the pitch excitement tends to follow. He is, however, sometimes too quick for his own good. His legs act first and then his head second.

What’s best about this is that it’s something he can work on. It’s coachable. And the more time he spends on the pitch for Arsenal can see him channel his unpredictability in the right ways. It’s going to be exciting to watch his develop in red and white.