The best teams in football have always been built on at least a few brilliant partnerships, and this Arsenal side are no different.
Mikel Arteta’s side is full of duos who complement and perfectly understand one another, with the most obvious example being the partnership of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhães.
The two centre-backs have played a massive part in making the Gunners the best defensive side in the Premier League, if not Europe, and have appeared in 129 competitive matches together, averaging 2.16 points per game.
However, as exceptional a pairing as they are, Arsenal’s Champions League win over Bayern Munich on Wednesday night made it clear that Arteta might have already created an even better one.
Arsenal's standout performers vs Bayern
It wouldn’t be an overreaction to say that, given the opponent and competition, Wednesday night was one of Arsenal’s most impressive performances under Arteta’s reign.
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In other words, there were sensational displays from practically everyone donning the red and white, but someone who really stood out was Jurrien Timber.
The former Ajax gem was the one who opened the scoring, heading home from a corner, but he did far more than that.
Minutes
81′
Expected Goals
0.52
Goals
1
Tackles (Won)
2 (2)
Interceptions
1
Recoveries
4
Ground Duels (Won)
5 (4)
Aerial Duels (Won)
3 (3)
Long Balls
1/1
Dribbles
1/1
For example, in addition to providing a constant threat down the right-hand side and linking up nicely with Bukayo Saka, the Dutch international was almost perfect from a defensive point of view.
In his 81 minutes of action, he won 100% of his tackles and aerial duels, made one interception, recovered the ball four times, and more than justified The Athletic’s Aaron Catterson-Reid claim that he’s “the best right-back in the world at the minute.”
Another starter who deserves praise is Eberechi Eze, as while he was quieter than on the weekend, he still provided the assist for Gabriel Martinelli.
Moreover, he had some real moments of quality in and around the Germans’ penalty area.
Finally, Riccardo Calafiori and Noni Madueke made quite the impact coming off the bench, with the former setting up the latter to score his first goal for the club.
With all that said, one of the reasons these players were able to shine is the efforts of a partnership within the side that might just be better than Gabriel and Saliba’s.
Arsenal's new best partnership
While Saliba and Cristhian Mosquera looked great on Wednesday, as did Eze and Mikel Merino, neither of those pairings is shaping up to be Arsenal’s best new duo.
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Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.
Instead, that title goes to the brewing partnership between Martin Zubimendi and Declan Rice.
Yes, while the Englishman was already performing at a world-class level for the Gunners over the last two years, the arrival of the Spaniard has helped him to further improve.
The former West Ham United captain has even said as much after Wednesday’s game, telling TNT Sports that the side “all trust him with the ball.”
The addition of the former Real Sociedad star has allowed the 26-year-old to maraud forward more freely, which is precisely what he did on multiple occasions against the Baverians.
However, he also still drops deeper on occasion and continues to do plenty of the dirty work, which is one of the reasons they’re such an incredible pairing, and why content creator Jamie Kent has dubbed the Englishman “the best midfielder in Europe.”
The watching press were unsurprisingly impressed with the two midfielders on Wednesday, with the Express’ Tom Parsons awarding both 9/10 match ratings.
That might sound slightly over the top, but it’s really not, and their statistics prove as much.
For example, in his 94 minutes, the Spaniard took 50 touches, completed 40 passes, was accurate with 100% of his long balls, recovered the ball three times, blocked one shot, and didn’t get dribbled past once.
In his 94 minutes, the £105m man produced a combined expected goal and assists figure of 0.61, played three key passes, took one shot on target, won 100% of his tackles, made one interception, took 66 touches, completed 39 passes, blocked one shot and recovered the ball five times.
Ultimately, while it was just the 16th competitive game Rice and Zubimendi have played together, Arsenal’s win over Bayern Munich was just more evidence that they could well be the Gunners’ new most important duo.
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