Arsenal’s positional fluidity could cause headaches for opposing defences next season

Arsenal are soon to announce Gabriel Jesus as their fourth official summer signing after Fabio Vieira, Marquinhos, and Matt Turner all completed their respective moves to the Emirates.

This is exciting for a multitude of reasons, the most notable being getting a deal done early for Arsenal’s biggest position of need ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

Arsenal’s strong interest in another Brazilian attacker, Raphinha, meanwhile, means there’s a lot to potentially be excited about for Arsenal’s attack next season.

Arsenal could cause a lot of teams issues next season with their variation in attack

One of the biggest things is the fluidity now available to deploy in the final third. One of my favourite things I saw from Eddie Nketiah at the back end of the season was his movement laterally across the front line. He would drift into the half-spaces and sometimes even swap positions for short periods with whoever was playing out wide. This added a lot of unpredictability to where different players were on the pitch at a certain time to make the attack hard to track.

With the potential of six players being available across the front-line next season, we could see a lot more of that, particularly from Jesus and Nketiah – who both have experience playing on the wing. This ensures they’re comfortable interchanging and connecting with teammates in wide areas. As for Arsenal’s current crop of wingers, which could be bolstered by Raphinha’s arrival, the vast majority are adept off either flank, adding more variation and ambiguity to Mikel Arteta’s multi-faceted attack.

Much of the positional fluidity that was seen from Arsenal last season came from Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard. With the Norwegian fitting well in the right half-space, he and Saka combined super effectively last season rotating in those areas to create chances with each other. The more of that the better for the Gunners next season because if more players are hard to track or nail down to a specific zone, the harder they’ll will be to defend. Such fluidity is key to breaking down deep-lying defences, and Arsenal will undoubtedly face their fair share of those next season.

With that, every single attacking player for Arsenal can play multiple positions with Gabriel Martinelli and Jesus able to play across the front line, Saka and potentially Raphinha capable of occupying both flanks. Nketiah has played on the left before, while Smith Rowe, Ødegaard, and Vieira can all play both centrally and out wide.

There are so many ways in which Mikel Arteta can set his team up which will prove to be a scary proposition for opposing teams.