Morning.
Welcome to the Interlull. I think this is going to feel like a long one, but I guess that’s fine given our position at the top of the Premier League table. If you want a list of who is doing what, and where, over the next 10 days or so, Andrew A has you covered over on Arseblog News.
Basically, everybody is gone except injured players like Martin Odegaard, Kai Havertz, Ben White, Piero Hincapie, and Noni Madueke, while Ben White – despite some talk of him being open to an England return – hasn’t played enough this season to force his way into Thomas Tuchel’s thinking. On the captain we’ll have to wait and see if there’s any further information made available during the break. My suspicion is that unless there’s something serious, like the need for surgery, Arsenal will try and be as tight-lipped as possible, and the next time we get an update is when Mikel Arteta holds his pre-Fulham press conference.
For today though, I want to talk about Riccardo Calafiori, because we live in an era when football feels a bit mechanical, with huge tactical influence on the way teams play. There are obviously incredible players across Europe and the world, but it does feel a bit as if only a very few are allowed the freedom to express themselves outside the confines of their manager’s tactical plan.
Arteta is someone who is quite granular when it comes to his preparation, how many times have we heard new players talk about how much they have to learn when they come to the club? Declan Rice couldn’t stop talking about, and even Eberechi Eze said last week his ‘mind was being stretched’ by what Arteta wants from his players. And in the midst of that, we have this sort of centre-half left-back dude, marauding around the pitch like some kind of stallion in a horse disco looking to attract the mare of his dreams.
He seems almost at odds with what we expect from an Arteta player, but after the West Ham the manager said of him:
A lot of dynamism, sometimes a bit chaotic but I think his dynamism and the spaces and the situations that he can create are very difficult to control for the opponent, especially against a team that is very well-organised. You have to disrupt their organisation in order to create chances and I think we’ve done that really well.
So, there is method to the madness, because of course there is. Nobody gets completely free rein (no pun intended) under Arteta, but I like it – not just because it feels like it pushes him out of a kind of comfort zone – but because it’s a lot of fun to watch. I made this observation in the Arsecast Extra, but readers of a certain generation will remember when tennis was full of ‘characters’. Players like Ille Nastase, John McEnroe, and Jimmy Connors had incredible talent, but were the very definition of maverick.
Someone like Andre Agassi straddled the line where character crossed over into something else, but then the game entered a different era where machine-like brilliance was breathtaking to watch in its quality and consistency, but lacked some of the personality of old. Football, to a large extent, has gone the same way. The drive for professionalism and the highest-standards has come at the expense of players who just went out there and did things off the cuff.
Typically, a lot of those players lived life the way they played, and unfortunately in this day and age those things are basically incompatible. You can’t, for example, do what Ronaldinho did and live in a hotel above a casino in Barcelona, tear it up on the football pitch, and then party all night afterwards. It catches up with you. You all know the names I mean when I talk about players like this, their talent was incomparable, but there are few managers who would indulge them these days because the physical level of the game is so different.
Which isn’t to say Calafiori is like them in terms of talent, but he feels like a bit of a throwback to that era. He’s fun to watch, because Arteta is not wrong about the dynamism and the fact he’s a bit chaotic. Look at his touch map from the West Ham, for example:
Which player has the highest xG in the Premier League this season so far. Well, according to fBref it’s Viktor Gyokeres with 3.0, and in joint second place, it’s Calafiori with 1.8. He’s tied with fellow full-back Jurrien Timber, btw. Who has had the most shots? It’s Gyokeres again with 14, tied with … yep, Calafiori. He’s also tied with Declan Rice and Eberechi Eze with the most assists so far (2), and while it’s early days and the sample size is small, you can see how much he brings.
On Saturday against the Hammers, he’s out wide in a ‘traditional’ left-back position just before half-time:
20 seconds later his movement and anticipation sees him inside the D to crack a shot off the post with his right foot, no less:
When you watch it back, he nips in ahead of Jarrod Bowen to get to the ball as it breaks. The sort of sneaky-good timing you expect from a forward, not a ‘defender’, but of course that term doesn’t properly describe him as a player. And look, there are some aspects of his game which are a bit raw, the halfway line yellow card as someone cuts inside him is something he can definitely work on, but I think defensively he has improved from last season too.
Consistency of availability is a big help in that regard, obviously, and so far he’s managed to avoid the injuries which plagued his first season. Fingers crossed he can maintain that fitness, because he’s become a really important part of this team. Arteta is blessed with great options at left-back, with Myles Lewis-Skelly and Piero Hincapie at his disposal too, but right now they both have a challenge on their hands because the Italian has really taken his opportunity thus far.
We are engaged in a very serious pursuit under a very serious manager, and that’s to win football matches and lift big trophies. There’s no question about it, but within the confines of that, we’re seeing a player who colours outside the lines a bit, and doesn’t care. Calafiori makes football look fun, with or without a towel, and we could all do with a bit more of that in our lives.
Right, I’ll leave it there. The Arsecast Extra, recorded late yesterday, is below if you haven’t had a chance to listen yet. Enjoy!
