3 ways Arsenal could line up in defence this season

Arsenal now boasts a serious defensive unit with many combinations available at Mikel Arteta’s disposal, but which one is the best?

For so long, Arsenal’s backline has caused much angst among the fanbase. Often seen as the weakest part of the team, we saw incompetence manifest time and time again as a long list of former defenders went about turning themselves into memes.

It felt like the days of Tony Adams, Sol Campbell, and Martin Keown would never come again. The consensus around the back four for the last however many years was that they were far too soft and never struck fear into any opposition they played against. Seems a bit harsh on Sebastien Squillaci, to be honest.

Anyway, that officially stops now.

With the return of William Saliba and the signing of Oleksandr Zinchenko to combine with Takehiro Tomiyasu, Ben White, Gabriel, and Kieran Tierney, what was once an Arsenal weakness can now be called a serious strength.

3 ways Arsenal could line up in defence this season

There are so many options as to how the back four could line up, and here are three combinations that are set to be popular throughout 2022/23.

1. Tomiyasu/White/Gabriel/Zinchenko

The standard order from last season except for Zinchenko. We saw last season how good the back four was for Arsenal when all were fully fit.

Tomiyasu often locked down the right-hand side and linked up well further down the pitch. His two-way running was a feature as he rarely got beaten.

White and Gabriel formed a formidable partnership as they were the two mainstays in the Gunners’ rearguard.

Then there’s Zinchenko. The Ukrainian will likely start the Premier League opener, possibly longer, given that Tierney has only played 30 minutes of football this pre-season. He can function as both an inverted and advancing full-back, but Tomiyasu’s presence means he’ll be tasked with providing width higher up the pitch and creating triangles down the left.

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