‘We Are Trying’—Mikel Arteta Teases Emergency Tactical Change for Chelsea Showdown

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta opened himself up to the prospect of deploying players in unfamiliar positions over the coming weeks in his continued attempts to combat the ongoing injury issues which have plagued the current campaign.

The Gunners may be forced into an emergency centre back option as soon as Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup semifinal first leg against Chelsea.

Heading into the London derby, Arteta revealed that first-choice defender William Saliba is a doubt. The Basque boss, whose fitness updates are best taken with a pinch of salt, also confirmed that Piero Hincapié, Cristhian Mosquera and Riccardo Calafiori would not be able to fill that vacant slot as they remained sidelined with various ailments.

Arteta turned to defensive midfielder Christian Nørgaard to line up alongside Gabriel Magalhães for Sunday’s FA Cup victory over Portsmouth and admitted that he may be forced into similar action this week and beyond.

“We are trying to find solutions to protect our players,” the Gunners manager explained. “The good thing is that players you ask to play in different positions like Christian for example or Dec [Declan Rice], they fulfil their role immediately in a great way and we need to navigate now in the next few weeks through that situation and I’m sure we’ll do that.”

Rice is another potential centre back candidate having played in that position throughout his youth career and during his early days at West Ham United. Yet, the all-action midfielder has also shone in a right back role this season, putting in a masterful performance against Brighton & Hove Albion from that unfamiliar position back in December.

Should regular fullbacks Jurriën Timber or Ben White be moved into the middle, Rice may be ushered onto the flank once again.

While Rice’s quality anywhere on the pitch has rarely been in doubt, Nørgaard has not yet been trusted to start a Premier League game since making the switch from Brentford over the summer. Not that Arteta has any reluctance fielding the Dane: “He is always ready to fulfil any role.”

For all his cultural revolution, stack of second-place finishes and transformed status in the global game, Arteta’s Arsenal tenure will forever be defined as a case of “what could have been” until they bolster the club’s trophy cabinet.

A pair of Community Shields is all the Gunners have claimed since winning the 2020 FA Cup final in an empty Wembley Stadium during Arteta’s maiden campaign. The Spaniard is yet to even return to a showpiece fixture, losing four semifinals across three different competitions over the past four years.

Arteta candidly described those repeated setbacks as “painful” but was optimistic that a cathartic victory lay on the horizon.

“Football gives you another chance,” he told assembled media ahead of the trip to Stamford Bridge. “We have been really consistent again in this competition and now we have to knock another big team out to be in the final. That is the mission. Hopefully we have learned from last year because it was ­painful, especially in the manner that the games went, and the amount of chances we missed to go through.

“So this year we want to be better and more efficient. The more you are involved in these kind of games the better because it gives you an edge. It brings the team a different kind of energy and it gives you the sense that the objective is very, very close, and that’s a massive motivation for everybody. We know that we are two games away from playing a final.”