Arsenal welcomed Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapi\u00e9 back to first-team training ahead of Sunday\u2019s Premier League meeting with Manchester United at the Emirates, a development revealed by The Athletic that offers Mikel Arteta fresh options at left back.<\/p>\n
Both players have been preferred by Arteta in that role for a reason. The draft explains Calafiori and Hincapi\u00e9 provide a natural ease on the left which Timber lacks and are more defensively sound than Lewis-Skelly. Their returns are therefore a timely boost, although Arteta declined to confirm their involvement for the weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have another training session [on Saturday], so we\u2019ll see tomorrow after that,\u201d the innately guarded manager told assembled media at Friday\u2019s pre-match press conference. \u201cAssess everybody and [then make] a major decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
The choice matters because United under Michael Carrick have shown clear strengths down the flanks. Carrick had limited time with the squad before last weekend\u2019s derby but his side produced a marked tactical shift. Aside from an overall increase in intensity, the most notable change was in switches of play.<\/p>\n
United managed just 32% possession at Old Trafford against Manchester City, but City ceded the wide channels. Kobbie Mainoo would recycle possession centrally before sending the ball out to the right, where the combination of Amad Diallo and Diogo Dalot created a string of clear chances in the first half. A switch from Patrick Dorgu to Amad opened City again in the second half, and Gianluigi Donnarumma later denied Casemiro from point blank range.<\/p>\n
Arsenal are familiar with pressure on the flanks. Chelsea\u2019s emphasis down their right during the Carabao Cup semi-final first leg earlier this month exposed uncomfortable moments for Timber when he was used at left back.<\/p>\n
Calafiori and Hincapi\u00e9 cannot fully negate a double team on the wing, but the pair bring more assurance in that area than some alternatives. Carrick\u2019s United also posed a threat on the break: Bryan Mbeumo\u2019s opening goal against City came from a rapid surge through the middle, one of four United shots from a fast break. Per Opta, only once in the last eight seasons have United had more counterattacking chances in a Premier League match, and no top-flight contest on record saw United progress the ball upfield as quickly as they did against City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Calafiori and Hincapi\u00e9 back in training give Arsenal defensive options to blunt United’s wide game .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6201,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,1083,969],"tags":[1162,1359,260],"class_list":["post-6202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-man-utd","category-premier-league","tag-analytics","tag-arsenal-injury","tag-bryan-mbeumo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202","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=6202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6202\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}