Mart\u00edn Zubimendi\u2019s position in Arsenal\u2019s setup has changed quickly. After being close to a regular place last season as the Gunners won the Premier League and reached the Champions League final, he now finds himself searching for a way back into Mikel Arteta\u2019s strongest side.<\/p>\n
There were already warning signs at the end of the previous campaign. Zubimendi did not start the Champions League final, the semifinal second leg, or any of Arsenal\u2019s last four Premier League games in midfield. In three of those matches he came on as a substitute, and in the other he was used at right back.<\/p>\n
The 2026\/27 season has brought more uncertainty. Across Arsenal\u2019s first four matches in the league, Zubimendi has not started in the Premier League. He has been used from the bench against Napoli in the Champions League and against Manchester City in the Community Shield. Much of that is down to the rise of Myles Lewis-Skelly, who is also keeping summer signing Bruno Guimar\u00e3es out of Arteta\u2019s preferred XI.<\/p>\n
His first start of the campaign came this week, and it arrived in an unfamiliar role. Zubimendi filled in at right back against Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup after the injury to Ben White. With competition in midfield so strong, that may now look like his clearest route back into the team.<\/p>\n
Jurri\u00ebn Timber has only recently returned from a long spell out and was rested for the Ipswich match. Ezri Konsa and Cristhian Mosquera can both play at right back, although Mosquera is currently sidelined and Konsa is covering for the injured William Saliba.<\/p>\n
That leaves an opening for Zubimendi if he can adapt again. Arteta has already shown a willingness to use technically gifted Spanish midfielders in altered roles, with Mikel Merino previously thriving as a makeshift striker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zubimendi\u2019s route back may come at right back after a difficult start to Arsenal\u2019s 2026\/27 season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19645,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1303],"tags":[1836,1066,1047],"class_list":["post-19646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-arsenal-news","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-carabao-cup","tag-champions-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19646","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19646"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19646\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}