The Arsenal man finding form under the radar

Before every season begins there are predictions made that rarely turn out as expected. Arsenal have seen their captain and highest earner stripped of his role and ostracised. Nothing ever pans out like we think it will.

What about an eventuality where Emile Smith Rowe would temporarily lose his place in the team to Gabriel Martinelli? That’s far from a cut and dry scenario, yet even for the stretch of games it has happened it broke the barriers of comprehensibility.

As Arsenal, quite literally, picked themselves up off the floor at Anfield, the attentions were focused on a valiant team performance epitomised by a colossal performance from Benjamin White.

Martinelli and Alexandre Lacazette were running on fumes as the whole group banded together to grind out a 0-0 draw despite being a man down for over 70 minutes. Individually there were displays to herald, one of which was another in a successive line of performances that have flown under the radar.

Kieran Tierney is an Arsenal man finding form under the radar with increasingly improving performances at left-back since returning to the team

Kieran Tierney is getting back to his best.

It was beyond the realms of plausibility that the Scot would ever not be one of the first names on the team sheet. While it was expected he wouldn’t feature all the time, that was solely because his injury record has proved costly to his bid for a consistent run in the team.

When Nuno Tavares enjoyed a prolonged spell in the side it was warranted. He added something fresh, dynamic and unpredictable to the left-back role, while Tierney’s form from the previous season had abandoned him.

Since returning to the team in the defeat away at Everton, the 24-year-old has started six successive Premier League matches, laid on three assists and scored a goal. Against Liverpool he put in another commanding display, the culmination of a consistent run in the side with his fitness and match sharpness ever improving.

Tierney didn’t lose his place in the team for a lack of trying. Effort is his middle name. It was simply a lack of form that he struggled to recapture, with his touch uncertain and the dynamic of the team in build-up struggling to cater to his endeavour in charging up and down that left flank.

Now, he looks sharp, combative and fluent. It’s that latter point that is perhaps most noticeable of all, as Tierney in full flight is so fluid in transitioning from defence to attack that it’s easy to mistake him for two different players.

A delicious cross for Bukayo Saka could well have grabbed Arsenal a winning goal at Anfield, and his astute one-on-one defending forced only wayward hit and hope crosses down the Reds’ right flank. Trent Alexander-Arnold was unusually limited in his output.

He isn’t at his finest fettle having only been in the team for those aforementioned six league matches running, but he is on the right track. Just like Takehiro Tomiyasu on the opposite side, sometimes when you almost forget they’re involved as their level is so steadfastly consistent it is a positive sign.

This one reads full steam ahead.