Are Arsenal ready to bring home the biggest trophy in North London?
On Tuesday night, the Gunners made a huge statement by beating Atletico Madrid 4-0 in the Champions League, with all of their goals coming in a 12-minute second half.
New striker Victor Gokeres scored twice to take some of the pressure off his shoulders, while fellow summer signing Martin Zvimendi produced another eye-catching performance.
The signings made this summer have thus taken Mikel Arteta’s side to another level, but is balance one of the under-the-radar reasons for the Gunners’ recent run of form?
Arsenal’s right side bias
During their last title challenge, the majority of Arsenal’s attacks came from the right flank.
Arteta’s Gunners’ best form came in the second half of the 2023/24 season, when they won 16 of their 18 Premier League games, with Benjamin White, Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka attacking the trident from a distance from the right, their most dangerous outlet.
As noted by The Athletic, the most common combinations involve White overlapping, thereby creating space for Saka, and Odegaard’s main task is to find one or the other, and this works thanks to White’s “energetic and well-timed runs”, Odegaard’s “exquisite passing”, and Saka’s “dribbling ability (which makes teams double for him)”.
Meanwhile, the Telegraph explains that a whopping 45% of attacks last season came from the right flank, up from 38% and 41% in the previous two seasons, and that this has been a clear pattern over time and becomes a problem when opponents can neutralize this.
They could have included dozens of goals to show the threat Arsenal pose from the right, but Kai Havertz’s late winning goal against Brentford in March 2024 is a good example of that.
Now, while Arteta’s squad has become much more balanced with recent signings and is no longer reliant solely on a few Saka Magic players, neither Whyte nor Odegaard have been particularly impressive so far this season for a variety of reasons.
Arteta has thus reshaped the left flank, but has this become equally effective?
Arsenal’s new look creative left side
Oleksandr Zinchenko once stood as Arsenal’s phenomenal left-back, but that position is now filled by Riccardo Calafioli.
The Italian has started all eight Premier League games so far, and after last weekend’s 1-0 win over Fulham at Craven Cottage, the Italian was paradoxically described as both “very solid defensively” and “the most exciting man in sports entertainment”.
The table below shows the importance of Kalaifoli this season.
Calafiori’s PL statistics 2025/26 | ||
|---|---|---|
statistics | Calafioli | PL rank |
minutes | 614 | 6th place |
the goal | 1 | 5th place |
assist | 2 | 1st place |
shot | 16 | second |
The action that creates the shot | 17 | 4th place |
Action to set goals | 5 | 1st place |
progressive carry | 16 | 4th place |
tackle | 12 | 3rd place |
clearance | 20 | 3rd place |
Number of balls collected | 30 | second |
Statistics by FBref | ||
As the table shows, surprisingly, Gokeres is the only Arsenal player who has attempted more shots in the Premier League this season, while the Italian has contributed in all areas of the pitch, including the fact that he is second only to Declan Rice in ball recoveries.
But as White can attest from the other side, a forward full-back is only as good as the player in front of him. So could Eberechi Eze be that player for Calafioli?
The England international is currently substituted on the right for Odegaard, with Leandro Trossard, who scored the decisive goal this week, and Gabriel Martinelli sharing time on the left.
Nevertheless, Eze’s natural tendency is to drift to the left, and he has to fight it at the moment.
Analyst Ben Mattinson therefore hypothesized in 2024 that the pair could become something like “Whyte and Saka on the left wing”, noting that there are “many similarities”, adding that Calafioli has “an excellent career” and Eze “creative”, concluding that this could be enough to lead Arsenal to the Premier League title.
The man, who arrived from Crystal Palace in August, was so excited that he provided his third assist for Arsenal on Tuesday, setting up the first of Gokeres’ two goals, while he himself opened his account for the Gunners with Port Vale in the EFL Cup last month.
Eze, who has previously been regularly deployed in the middle, is also starting on the left as Arteta looks for more central creativity.
The best example of his ability from wide positions was against Nottingham Forest, when, as you might expect, Calafioli dived from behind on the edge of a driven ball that went over the top and squared it for Gökeres to slot into the goal.
This goal could prove to be just a pastime to show what this £110m pair can contribute this season, so if Arsenal’s left side can be as strong as their right side, supporters have every reason to believe this could truly be their year.
