Oleksandr Zinchenko was a welcome return to the Arsenal backline for their Premier League London derby fixture with Chelsea at the weekend. The summer signing has been absent from the Gunners squad since the north London derby win over Spurs last month with a calf problem.
Following his first few months in a red shirt, it seemed as though Arsenal had secured a superb deal having parted with £32 million to acquire his services from Manchester City, so there was understandable concern once his injury became more serious than expected, as well as who could match his intensity and football brain.
Kieran Tierney and Takehiro Tomiyasu, usually played on the right of the back four, have provided excellent cover for the Ukrainian during his near five-week absence, with the latter considered the Premier League left-back and Tierney as the man deployed in the Europa League.
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After hobbling off with a hamstring injury in Arsenal's final Europa League group game on Thursday, Tomiyasu was expected to miss Sunday's fixture and following an impressive performance in that game, Tierney seemed his likely replacement with Zinchenko, who had made the first matchday squad for the first time in over a month, a substitute.
However, the former Manchester City man was deployed on the left and it was clear to see why after he barely put a foot wrong for the 72 minutes he was on the field before he was eventually replaced by Tierney.
Zinchenko has seemingly already won over Arsenal supporters after he was seen wildly celebrating the Gunners dramatic win over Fulham last month and it seems he is a popular figure with his teammates as well.
Many of the Arsenal players took to Instagram to bask in the glory of their victory, with Zinchenko replying to a particular Arsenal star's post comparing him to legendary goal scoring French midfielder Zinedine Zidane, and surprisingly it wasn't Granit Xhaka.
Mohamed Elneny was instead the recipient of some lofty praise from his teammate after the 30-year-old posted an image of Arsenal celebrating at the full time whistle adding the caption 'Proud to be part of this team, we are Arsenal', Zinchenko then replied with 'Egyptian Zidane'.
Despite Xhaka's recent impressive displays which have seen him chip in with four goals and three assists this season, it was Elneny who was compared to Zidane by Zinchenko and perhaps on the training pitch he is the one smashing them in like Zizou in his prime.
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