Mikel Arteta certainly has one or two big selection dilemmas ahead of Arsenal’s upcoming trip to Tottenham Hotspur in the North London derby.
It’s fairly well known by this point that Arteta will be without Declan Rice for the game after the Arsenal midfielder was cruelly sent off by Chris Kavanagh against Brighton & Hove Albion last weekend.
Gary Lineker was shocked by Rice’s red, saying that football had lost its mind at this point.
But however frustrating that decision may have been, Arsenal now need to move on and find solutions.
Although it might be tempting to deploy Jorginho into midfield, Arsenal should actually start Riccardo Calafiori instead of Rice, with Jurrien Timber moving into the number eight role.
Admittedly, they were without Micky van de Ven, who makes a big difference with his recovery pace, but as usual, Tottenham left so much space behind their defence.
Cristian Romero often found himself out of position, as usual, and on this occasion it was Alexander Isak making those runs in behind.
Kai Havertz can do similar, but if you’re looking for someone to run in behind at a diagonal then Arsenal have a £6m Brazilian who’s perfect for the job.
All that being said, the game might also be perfect for Raheem Sterling to make his debut off of the bench, who may already be dreaming of scoring the winner.
Micah Richards actually thought Sterling was better than Martinelli at getting in behind opposition defences, which is a big compliment for the Englishman.
And perhaps once Martinelli has had his go at getting in behind Romero and Pedro Porro on the right, then Sterling can then be deployed.
Moreover, if Arsenal are planning to start Calafiori at left back and Timber as their number eight, then both Martinelli and Sterling will have sufficient cover defensively to make these runs in behind.
It’s a convincing recipe for Arteta, who will no doubt have his own surprise up his sleeve once club football returns.
