Three ways Arsenal can replace Martin Odegaard as Mikel Arteta faces North London Derby dilemma
Martin Odegaard suffering an ankle injury for his national team during a week ahead of three massive games for Arsenal is definitely a nightmare situation that Mikel Arteta needs to respond to. An innocuous moment which seemed unlucky more than anything escalated an already concerning week for the Gunners’ skipper who suffered some issues against Brighton and in training.
However, while the extent of the injury is so far unknown, the club will need to have contingencies in place in order not to be unprepared going into these three games. The North London Derby is up first on Sunday and then a midweek game against Atalanta before a trip to Manchester City.
While Arsenal did not replace the loaned-out Fabio Vieira, the club has taken a different approach to squad building. Players are signed as assets for several positions and as such the club are prepared if multiple players suffer problems.
Kai Havertz
The first is of course to move Kai Havertz from the centre-forward position into a role not exactly like Odegaard’s current position but instead similar to what he did for Germany this weekend. Playing off Niclas Fullkrug, Havertz helped to facilitate the German attack as a second striker and with hope Gabriel Jesus might be back this might indeed be how Arteta chooses to go.
Havertz has played the role for the club before with mixed results but this was at the start of the previous campaign as he remained in limbo from the switch from Chelsea. A different player in good form, there would be far greater confidence that Havertz would respond well.
The back five
Arsenal could decide to switch to a back five (5-2-3) with Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchenko. Removing the attacking midfielder and having a midfield two of Jorginho and Thomas Partey.
Jurrien Timber and Jakub Kiwior are further options for Arteta to consider as his side take on Tottenham. With a trip to City coming up the switch to a counter-attacking setup might instead give them some preparation although there is a sense to play this that wing backs are required but Arsenal created two big chances against Brighton after switching to this before the break.
Ethan Nwaneri
The last option is to keep things how they are and instead replace Odegaard man for man by bringing in Ethan Nwaneri. The exciting 17-year-old is yet to make a Premier League start and this would be an almighty game to throw him into at such an early stage.
The Bolton game will surely have been rubberstamped as there Nwaneri would make his first competitive start but it might be that needs must bring that forward. Youngsters often get chances at the elite level because of injury and could it be here we see that emerge for Nwaneri?
