{"id":287684,"date":"2025-10-08T22:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/287684\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T22:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T22:57:10","slug":"mikel-arteta-has-already-found-arsenals-martin-odegaard-replacement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/287684\/","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta has already found Arsenal’s Martin \u00d8degaard replacement"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Martin \u00d8degaard was eventually withdrawn on Saturday, needing treatment for the third time after suffering a clash of knees with West Ham’s Crysencio Summerville, Arsenal fans must have been fearing the worst.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s not just that \u00d8degaard had returned from two shoulder injuries and was already firing on all cylinders that would have bothered Gooners. It’s the concern that they’ve seen it all before. <\/p>\n

First, a key player gets injured, then another. What follows is a slight drop in form that takes Arsenal out of the title race. Finally, those players return and things improve. Sadly, by then the damage has already been done.<\/p>\n

\u00d8degaard injury record has hurt Arsenal\"Martin<\/p>\n

Paris Saint-Germain v Arsenal FC – UEFA Champions League 2024\/25 Semi Final Second Leg | Sports Press Photo\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

\u00d8degaard’s injury record has hurt Arsenal’s chances over recent seasons.<\/p>\n

Last season, he was missing for 14 matches with an ankle ligament<\/a> sprain during which Arsenal dropped vital points away at Bournemouth and Newcastle. They also failed to beat Liverpool at home.<\/p>\n

\u00d8degaard’s injury was compounded by the hamstring injury to Bukayo Saka which kept him out of action for 21 matches. Given those injuries, finishing second in the Premier League and making it through to the semi-finals of the Champions League is little short of a miracle.<\/p>\n

After losing \u00d8degaard on the half-hour mark, Arteta had so many options<\/a> still available to him. Some may have raised their eyebrows at the introduction of Martin Zubimendi who until now has played a conservative role at the base of the Arsenal midfield.<\/p>\n

Comparing the two Martin’s may be a little unfair but it’s absolutely necessary. \u00d8degaard offers defence splitting through balls; Zubimendi offers safe, sideways and backwards passing. One creates chances, the other focuses on ball retention.<\/p>\n

The perfect replacement for \u00d8degaard\"Martin<\/p>\n

Arsenal v West Ham United – Premier League | Alex Pantling\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

That was before Saturday. Against West Ham, fans witnessed a different Zubimendi. A forward passing, chance creating incarnation of Zubi. <\/p>\n

In the 60 minutes that he played after coming on for \u00d8degaard, Zubimendi made 5 passes into the final third and he got forward far more than he had done in previous games. Aside from the outrageous double that he scored against Nottingham Forest<\/a>, Zubimendi has played with the handbrake firmly on and the gearbox in neutral.<\/p>\n

If Arteta can continue to encourage Zubimendi to pass forward and to get forward, he could be the perfect replacement for \u00d8degaard. He has the passing range to unlock defences but not yet the vision. However, with the Dane missing for anything up to 12 weeks, depending on the severity of his MCL injury, Zubimendi will need to take a few more risks going forward. <\/p>\n

Increased squad depth gives Arteta options\"Mikel<\/p>\n

Arsenal v West Ham United – Premier League | Julian Finney\/GettyImages<\/p>\n

Of course, Arteta still has options<\/a>. Ethan Nwaneri, Mikel Merino, and Max Dowman all like to play in an advanced central midfield role. <\/p>\n

Declan Rice could even be pushed forward with Zubimendi or Christian N\u00f8rgaard playing in a deeper role. Such has been the quality of the recruitment over the summer that even a player of \u00d8degaard’s undoubted quality may not be greatly missed.<\/p>\n

If Zubimendi can mimic a little of \u00d8degaard’s playing style, not only will he become a better player for it, but also Arsenal will barely notice that \u00d8degaard is missing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Martin \u00d8degaard was eventually withdrawn on Saturday, needing treatment for the third time after suffering a clash…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":287685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[221,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-287684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-soccer","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115341024218713070","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=287684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/287684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=287684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=287684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=287684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}