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Arsenal head to Nottingham Forest on Sunday with five wins from their first six Premier League games, and the next week is a big one.
After the City Ground, it’s a trip to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, and Mikel Arteta will want his strongest side out for both. For most of the team, that’s fairly easy to pick, but there’s one position where the decision has got a lot harder in the last week, and fans on Talking Points are split on what he should do.
TalkingPoints
Who would be your preferred two to start in midfield for Arsenal and why? 🤔
You would assume that Declan Rice is a certainty in midfield. Myles Lewis-Skelly has been his partner in five of Arsenal’s six league games so far, all of which they’ve won. The only game Bruno Guimaraes started was the defeat at Brighton, where he struggled.
Theo Walcott summed up why the pairing works on his TikTok last week, pointing out that Lewis-Skelly does all the work that Rice doesn’t want to do at times, which can free Rice up a bit. But the Leeds game may have actually shown that Guimaraes is the one that frees Rice up.
However, they may be more defensively sound with Lewis-Skelly in the team. Arsenal have conceded just 0.54 goals per 90 minutes with him on the pitch (per FotMob). With Bruno on, that rises to 1.79, largely down to the 3-0 defeat at Brighton. Plenty of fans think Lewis-Skelly should stay in the side.
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theguardian.ark
If Arteta does not know by now that Myles Lewis-Skelly is undroppable, and that the only reason Brighton beat us black and blue was because his space in midfield was glaringly empty, then he is not the Arteta we’ve come to love.
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But Bruno is making a strong case now. He came off the bench to score the winner against both Sunderland and Leeds, two games Arsenal could easily have dropped points in.
Then against Lille on Tuesday, in his first full 90 minutes for the club, he had five shots, more touches than anyone else on the pitch, and led Arsenal for carries, defensive actions and involvement in attacking moves. It’s a small sample, but even in the league he’s averaging more line-breaking passes per 90 than Lewis-Skelly (16.7 to 11) and more than twice as many defensive contributions (10.7 to 4.8).
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freddie
It’s 100% Rice and Bruno G
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The reality is the two offer quite different things. Lewis-Skelly is tidy under pressure and good at wriggling out of tight spots, and he’s more of an effective ball carrier. Bruno, meanwhile, is always looking for the pass that moves Arsenal further forward, even if it isn’t the safest option. With that, they will lose the ball more often.
But when they lose it high up the pitch, they can win it straight back and attack before the opposition is set, something they haven’t always had in a side full of very secure, controlled players. With Arsenal failing to score in the first half of their last five games, that might be exactly what they need from the start.
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lee.connor
I’d go Rice and MLS at the moment tbh. Love Bruno G but think MLS has been superb
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Lewis-Skelly played at left-back on Tuesday night with Piero Hincapie unavailable, and with Martin Zubimendi also out, it opened up the chance to play Bruno alongside Rice for a full game. Riccardo Calafiori will come back into the side on Sunday, so it comes down to a straight choice between Bruno and Lewis-Skelly for the midfield, and Arteta is likely to face the same decision again in Munich a few days later.
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