I get the feeling this is the type of piece that is going to require some caveats and extra clarification to make it as crystal clear as possible. Arsenal find themselves back in winning ways after back-to-back victories against Chelsea and Newcastle.
There were two constants in both games that were previously missing from the four matches where Arsenal dropped points - Jorginho, who was a contender for man of the match on Tyneside and Jakub Kiwior.
Mikel Arteta made the call to take Rob Holding out of the team for the first time in six successive Premier League starts. The experienced defender had been facing continuous criticism for supporters, not necessarily for individual errors but more so for how his presence created a restrictive dynamic on the Arsenal play.
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Kiwior, a defender who is naturally left-sided and left-footed, had played only on the right side of a centre-half unit on five previous occasions totalling 230 minutes according to Wyscout. The Polish international however is a far more technical defender, meaning his distribution, progression and composure on the ball outranks that of Holding.
Kiwior’s inclusion in the side for the last two games has led to quite the level of hindsight-provoking thought. The question of whether Arteta should, therefore, have brought Kiwior in sooner and perhaps the outcome of the games in which we dropped points might have been different.
I think that whilst the question is fair to ask, it does have some holes. Before discussing them, it is important to make it clear that based on these two performances it is evident that Arsenal would have had a better chance at an improved performance thanks to Kiwior’s style and impact.
However, for me, I think that the individual errors against both West Ham United, which are unrelated to Holding’s inclusion, are bigger factors in the dropping of points from those two games. Effectively, had Bukayo Saka scored his penalty to make it 3-1 at West Ham, and had Aaron Ramsdale not passed short for Alcaraz against Southampton, Arsenal would have been more likely to take maximum points than were Kiwior in Holding’s place.
Hence, to point the finger critically at Arteta for not selecting Kiwior sooner over Holding is rather harsh. Add to that the last time Kiwior started for Arsenal in Portugal where he endured a frantic first start and one which led to plenty of Arteta’s remaining critics to question why the player was bought at all.
His substitute appearance against Liverpool did not inspire further confidence either. It’s important not to make conclusive judgements on players with a small sample size, yet I can hardly blame Arteta for not throwing Kiwior in sooner when the examples on offer from this offering were as such.
Kiwior should rightly start whilst William Saliba is out and Holding needs to find the next step for his career, away from Arsenal, in the summer – for the benefit of both club and player. But lingering on what could have been when the evidence to the contrary is so strong is far too much in the unknown for me to hop of the train to point the finger at Arteta here.
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