A pre-match issue picked up by Riccardo Calafiori might not remembered come the end of Arsenal’s season, but it could turn out to be a significant moment.
The Italian had been down to start at left-back against Wigan in the FA Cup on Sunday. However, as the camera panned to the players in the tunnel ahead of kick-off, Bukayo Saka was unexpectedly at the front of the queue.
Saka was initially named on the bench but, with Calafiori picking up a problem in the warm-up, he was brought into the starting line-up at the last minute.
That set the stage for a 45-minute experiment that will have given Mikel Arteta plenty to ponder heading into the final months of the season.
Saka started in a central role in midfield against Wigan. The 24-year-old has done so before but that was during the early stages of Arteta’s reign, back in 2020 and then on a couple of occasions a season later.
This was the first time in recent memory, though, and the first since Saka has established himself as one of the Premier League’s best wingers.
He was replaced at half-time in the 4-0 win over Wigan, with Arsenal already four goals up, but Arteta had seen enough to consider it a successful reshuffle.
“I wanted to try it and we might use it in the future,” Arteta said.
“So we still have so many games, competitions and different scenarios to play in this season, and that’s a possibility that we have.”
It is hard to read too much into what this performance means for the weeks and months ahead. Wigan are 22nd in League One and their defending in the first half an hour felt even worse than that.
In the Premier League or in Europe, the Arsenal players will not get the same amount of time and space, or ragged defensive lines.
However, there were enough promising signs to suggest this was an experiment worth another outing against stiffer opposition.
“He’s more central, he’s closer to the goal,” Arteta offered as a verdict.
“It’s a bit more difficult for the opponent to get his reference constantly.
“He can interchange position with the wide player as well, and he’s so good at picking those spaces, and when he’s there, he can really hurt you with the ball.”
Saka is one of Arsenal’s best players but in the current Arsenal system he can become too stuck on the wing. He has only four goals and three assists in the Premier League this season.
