Arsenal: 5 solutions to Kieran Tierney left-back problem

Here we are again. Arsenal, in vastly improved form and finally looking up the table, have been rocked by a season-ending injury to Kieran Tierney that risks derailing their top four ambitions. It’s last season all over again.

On that occasion is cost the side dearly. Reshuffles in system and personnel worked until they didn’t, with disasters in Europe and inconsistent league form troubling the side for much of winter/spring 2021.

Amazon Prime won’t be best pleased, since they would have been hoping for some new drama in north London this time around.

The absence of the Scot with a knee injury – it was his knee last season too – saw Nuno Tavares brought into the starting lineup against Crystal Palace, which at least shows there is one difference this time around: Arsenal actually have another left-back.

Arsenal: 5 tactical solutions to left-back problem as Kieran Tierney injury rules him out of the rest of the Premier League season

Unfortunately, he was so out of his depth that deep sea divers had to go searching for him. Hauled off at half-time to make it 80 minutes of playing time in his last two starts hammered home the significance of Tierney’s injury and the state of affairs at Arsenal.

With each one of the following nine matches firmly in the ‘cup final’ territory, how Mikel Arteta goes about solving this issue can so easily define the season. That’s without even factoring in the extent of a lengthy Thomas Partey absence.

It’s beyond damaging. But solutions must be found. The hopes of securing a top four finish and a return to the Champions League depend on it.

1. Stick With Nuno Tavares

That’s right. He may have looked beyond repair for this season with the performances against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, with extensive work over the summer required to get him coached properly, but he is, after all, a left-back.

What’s noticeable with Nuno is how dramatically his technical level drops when he’s away from home. A different player leaves north London to the one who stays behind.

Given the team look set to lose Partey and will need to reshuffle, it would then help to make fewer changes in total. Nuno is an adventurous left-back, but one who can avoid Arsenal from deviating from their system too drastically.

He’s someone who has to pick his confidence back up off the floor. Arteta, like the fans, knows what he can produce and it wasn’t too long ago where he’d legitimately won his place in the team over Tierney. Now all hell has broken loose when the tables have turned.

A home game against Brighton is a real opportunity for him to improve his comfort within the team, get back into the right mindset and and build some level of form that could see him keep his place for the rest of the run-in. For the sake of the whole group, Nuno being back to his previous level and starting at left-back reduces systemic and tactical changes to a minimum.

The caveat to that is, however, that it’s hard to see where that form will come from. There is reward at the end of it, but serous risk in pursuing it.

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