Mikel Arteta has achieved one of his great wishes. Martin Odegaard has already been officially announced as a new Arsenal player, where he will play on loan until the end of the season. The Norwegian hopes to find under the heat of the Spanish coach the minutes he has not had with Zidane, only 367 ‘in seven league games and two in the Champions League.
Real Madrid continues to have full confidence in Odegaard, both as a player of the future and of the present and therefore one of the club’s priorities when it came to transferring the player to Arsenal was knowing that he was going to have a good number of minutes in London. At first, Odegaard is expected to start as a starter, either as Half Point in the typical 4-2-3-1 of the Gunners in the last games, the like inside in a 4-3-3.
Odegaard will take over as Arsenal’s new jewel …
In both formations, the player who will lose his position in principle is the promising Smith Rowe, a youth squad who with only 20 years has become one of the team’s sensations this season. The Englishman made his debut in this edition of the Premier League in the transcendental derby against Chelsea, game to which Arsenal arrived in a deep crisis of results and that they solved with a 3-1, starting a streak of six league games without a loss, five wins and one draw.
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Since then Smith Rowe has started every game, in which it has achieved three assists. Due to his youth and the stripes and importance of his teammates, everything seems to indicate that he will be the one who gives up his position to the Norwegian. Odegaard, as the youth squad has been doing, will be the hitch ahead of Thomas (Ceballos) -Xhaka, accompanied by Aubameyang and Saka in the bands and with Lacazette as a reference above. The other variation would be playing more backward indoors but accompanied -in principle- by the same men.
… But Nicolas Pépé will be the most affected player
But despite this, Smith Rowe will not be the main “victim” of Odegaard’s arrival, but that “honor” will be for Nicolas Pépé, signing most expensive in club history. With the youth squad acting as the player number 12, the ex from Lille will have a new stone on your way to succeed as a gunner, which was far from placid and simple.
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Arsenal paid last summer 80 million by a player who at 24 had become one of the sensations of the French league. Their 22 goals and eleven assists in 38 Ligue 1 games, added to his speed and overflow, they made him an ideal candidate to form a luxury trident along with Aubameyang and Lacazette. Of course, the controversy revolved around his signing from the beginning both because of its price and because of the leaks that the coach at that time, Unai Emery, had asked Wilfried Zaha instead of him.
His first year was somewhat disappointing – as was the overall performance of the team – and finished with eight goals and ten assists in 2717 minutes. It was expected that this season would be their settlement, but the opposite is being done. Pépé has so far played a total of 1495 minutes, but only 568 of them have been in Premier – starting only five times – accumulating the vast majority of minutes in the Europa League and the two cups, where Arsenal have already been eliminated. Six goals and three assists in 24 games are their numbers, being only three goals achieved in the league.
His worst moment is the best of the team
Odegaard’s arrival also occurs in his worst moment, coincidental or not, is the best of Arteta’s. Since matchday 9 in which he was sent off and suspended three games for giving a header to Ezgjan Alioski – Leeds player – he has only played 341 minutes of the Premier League. But it is also that, until the last game against Southampton, in the streak of five unbeaten matches, Pépé stayed on the bench in three of them, dressing short 19 minutes against Chelsea and 25 frente al Crystal Palace.
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Last Wednesday 26, against the Saints, Pépé found some calm in the middle of the storm. Due to the absence for personal reasons from Aubameyang– The star had to return to London for a personal reason and Arteta declared that “he is going through a bad time” – the Spanish coach decided to line him up along with Smith Rowe, Saka and Lacazette. The winger responded perfectly scoring the goal that tied the score at the start of the game, playing 90 minutes and being the fourth highest rated player of his team on the Sofascore website. “It was very good again,” Arteta said after the match.
Pépé will have to continue down this path to change a context that does not invite optimism. Aubameyang and Saka are indisputable in the bands and if he already had a tough fight for a position as a substitute with Willian Y Martinelli, the theoretical substitution of Smith Rowe and the possibility that the Norwegian also plays in band, is bad news for the ex from Lille.
The weight of the 80 million
Pépé’s situation may even become a problem for Arteta. Its 80 million not only represent the largest investment in the club’s history, but they place him in the top 6 of the most expensive signings in the Premier, behind Havertz (80 without counting variables), Van Dijk (84), Lukaku (84), Maguire (87) and Pogba (105). Having a player who was paid so much a year and a half ago with a residual role always generates a bad drink with the board pressing to try to justify the investment.
Mikel Arteta has a good role ahead in that regard. First of all, you must give it a hollow to Odegaard without totally cutting off Smith Rowe’s progression, vital in this resurgence of the team, and should also try count on Pépé so that he does not become the worst signing in the club’s history. The match against Southampton marks the way, but once Aubameyang returns and Odegaard entered the team dynamics, Arteta will have a difficult situation to manage.
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