Celebrity Arsenal fan Piers Morgan has crowned Oleksandr Zinchenko as his player of the season as he poked fun at Pep Guardiola's decision to allow him to leave Manchester City.
Zinchenko has made 22 appearances in all competitions and helped the Gunners mount a surprise Premier League title challenge. He had been deemed surplus to requirements at City by Guardiola after six years at the Etihad Stadium.
But the Ukrainian has become a key man under Mikel Arteta, taking Kieran Tierney's starting spot at left-back. As well as scoring the crucial equaliser in the thrilling win over Aston Villa, Zinchenko also provided the assist for Bukayo Saka's opening goal in Wednesday's thrashing of Everton.
Zinchenko has impressed so much that Morgan has placed him ahead of the likes of Saka and Martin Odegaard in his player of the year standings. The broadcaster could not resist poking fun at Guardiola for allowing the Ukrainian to join the Gunners.
"For me, potentially along with Saka and Odegaard, the player of the season for us - and maybe the Premier League - has been Zinchenko. Pep Guardiola said he was surplus to requirements. His heat map last night is absolutely insane," Morgan said on talkSPORT on Thursday.
"That guy was supposed to be left-back and he was absolutely everywhere. The signings that were made in the close season of bringing (William) Saliba back has been transformative with Gabriel.
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"Getting Gabriel Jesus, although he’s been injured, and imagine what it’ll be like when he’s back for the run in. Then you get to (Thomas) Partey, immensely important when he came on, (Granit) Xhaka has turned himself around from being booed off the pitch to one of our key players."
Morgan also insisted that this group of Arsenal players have a similar look to that of the Gunners' last title winning team, back in 2004. He believes that Arteta's men do not have any major weaknesses that could derail their title bid
“I remember the (Arsene) Wenger title-winning teams and there were no weaknesses on the pitch, and I feel that again. That’s why I’m excited about our chances of winning the league," Morgan added.
“We are up against City, who have this amazingly deep squad, but I don’t think they are as good as they have been. I think we are as strong as we have been since 2004. My argument for the last 18 years has been there have been so many weak links in the team. You’d see Arsenal go out against the bigger clubs: Chelsea, (Manchester) United, City, whatever.
“There were always weaknesses in those starting XIs. I don’t see any weaknesses now. I just see a mixture of youth and experience, players who’ve got the right attitude now.”
Arsenal host Bournemouth on Saturday, having built a five point lead over City at the top of the table. The Sky Blues will play a few hours earlier as they host Newcastle in the lunchtime kick-off.
