Oleksandr Zinchenko has described Arsenal as an ‘incredible team’ but admits there are still kinks in their game that need to be ironed out.
An own goal by William Saliba and James Maddison’s 74th-minute strike saw Leicester City twice close the gap on the Gunners on an afternoon when the margin of victory should have been more comfortable than the 4-2 scoreline suggested.
“It was important to get the win but we need to improve a couple of things,” Zinchenko told the Evening Standard.
“It’s just the beginning of the season and I think we need to analyse. Still, we conceded two goals and from a defensive line that is a lot. That is why we need to keep going – but I’m so happy for the team and the club.”
While he only signed for the club three weeks ago, the Ukraine international has seamlessly integrated himself into Arteta’s system, operating as a left-back with a remit to tuck inside.
“We have an unbelievable squad,” he added.
“Everyone is working hard every day and everyone deserves to play. We’re an unbelievable team.
“I’m trying to do my best and do what the manager has asked me to do. We’re trying to keep the ball better, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Zinchenko completed more passes in the final third than anyone else on the pitch on Saturday (25/26) as he combined down the left flank with Granit Xhaka and Gabriel Martinelli to good effect.
The trio’s fleet-footed play was complemented by Gabriel Jesus who had a home debut to remember thanks to two goals and two assists.
“I never had any doubts about him, because he’s a world-class player in terms of his numbers,” said Zinchenko of his close friend.
“You can see it as well in how he works along with his attitude every day in training. He’s an example [to others].
“He’s still young, everyone needs to improve some things. He needs to work on a couple of things, like everyone, but the rest is unbelievable.
“He was good during all the years I’ve spent with him. He’s an incredible player, always hungry for goals which is the best quality as a striker. He doesn’t stop at all and I’m so happy for him.
“He’s the guy who is always happy for the team. The team is always first and the club is always in front of any individual thing. The most important thing was three points, that’s so important. We need to be as a team.”
Not too much though.
It’s the premier League..to beat city and Liverpool you’ll have to be literally perfect! Zinchenko is such a breath of fresh air…the technical level those two city players bring is ridiculous!! He could play 8,10 and maybe 6 in matches where we dominate the ball…press resistant….underpriced!! Both of them…. United got lisandro at nearly the price of both! Hilarious 😂
I just have to point out that, as an Ajax fan, not Dutch but raised there, that i feel bit sorry for Martinez. Hes actually a very good defender, but with any player they need the right structure and team mates to excel. Martinez has been a beast not only in Holland, but also for consecutive years in the CL, up against the best teams/strikers of football. And really, im only saying guys. This Dutchie has ignited the Dutch hahah If Martinez would be in out set up, it be a diff player. But fuck me give the guy a… Read more »
Looking like a great buy.
And the comparison with our start last season is incredible, keep it going and we have a great chance of CL and even a trophy.
Great buy indeed, hybrid left back and left midfielder
How about arteta going for James maddison for xhaka upgrade, that will be Cazorla inspired, Madison with partey will take our game to another level, athletic, line breaker, press resistance, dead ball specialist, and goal threat
@Edu get it done
To imagine we had kola…
Mindset of a champion. 👍👍👍👍
I’m still not sure quite what we were doing going into battle for Lisandro.
Zinchenko just feels like a more complete LB who ticks all the boxes.
My only hope is we were trolling United to hike the price up. If that’s true, I want an Edu and Arteta statue outside the stadium of them giggling while on the phone to Ajax.
We clearly had to consider different options and were looking at him for the LB position. You can’t put all your eggs in one basket and all that. Glad we got Zinchenko, much better player for a much lower fee.
we were never going to pay 65m though – we were offering up to 40m abd then let Utd take over the bidding
Think it’s more of how Arteta viewed Lisandro which was primarily as an LB and a backup CB. ETH views him primarily as a CB. Still early days but looks like its going to be a struggle for him playing CB in the premier league. Im still glad we got Zinchenko over Lisandro, but i reckon even if we had signed Lisandro, he would be having a much better time playing LB for us than the nightmare he is currently having at the Theater of Dreams.
I don’t think we’ll see L. Martinez at CB for a long while. Brentford manager claimed openly they targeted him. Eric Hag would be out of his depth if he brought him back.
He will end up at LB or DM.
So they have England international and gastric band wearer Luke Shaw. Then they bought Malacia who’s an LB. And now they have bought a £55m defender who they can only play at LB.
Is it possible that United are actually worse run than us in our ‘Grapes of Raul’ days?
He’d have probably done alright for us because he’d have been playing alongside some blokes actually trained daily on how to defend rather then a walking fridge roleplaying as a captain. £57m though for him to get torn apart by Welbz & Mbuemo 🤣. As Gabi said, we deserve a discount from Ajax for playing along with the scheme to fleece United. Glad we got Zinny instead though, like what I’ve seen so far
@welbz and mbeumo… hilarious! To think he hasn’t met the Nordic neighbor across the city…too bad Burnley and the old stoke are on a sabbatical 🙂
Having watched 2 of the 3 promoted teams in the first week, I’m sure Johnson, Awoniyi & Mitrovic will be hardy replacements for anything Burnley & Stoke could throw at him, hell even Kieffer Moore probably can’t wait for United to visit the South Coast
Ditto that!
‘zinny’ sounds and looks strange, doesnt it? someone here recently mentioned the OZ as another possibility!
For him it’s been a theatre of nightmares 🤣
tbh, lisandro does look decent on the ball. He is getting exposed at cb, but still he has the qualities of a good defender which would have made him a good choice as rb.
Maybe Ajax will give us a favourable discount next time since we helped bump up the price by 20m. United, the fools
Isn’t AJAX a toilet disinfectant?
He would have been fine for us. Unfortunately for him he chose Man U who are a total shit show now. Not even the best player in the world could do well there.
Well, they actually have a guy who has been the best (or one of the two best) players in the world for a decade. And he really, really does not want to be there.
Ronaldo is a fading star and we know plenty about the repercussions of signing those. Especially the ones who are all about themselves. Ronaldo sums up everything that is wrong with Man U of the last ten years.
Not that I’m complaining. Maybe we can even poach the likes of Martinez, Elanga and Sancho for little or nothing off the back of that in a couple of years time.
🤣 Would love to troll United more by beating them to Caisedo, who I think we should be going for as Partey competition (rather than Tielemans) …
Lissandro was just a fog of war thing… Publicly talk about desire for Martinez while secretly negotiate for Zinchenko. Tell Zinny’s side we are after Martinez as #1 unless Zinny’s fees are low, while publically get troubled Man U and their fans to “hijack” our Martinez deal for a huge premium and then secretly tie up the Zinny deal. We were never actually going for Martinez, he was merely our way of getting Zinny + sending a big F U to the lot at Man United
Lisandro can also play midfield as he has done for Ajax, I don’t think the plan was ever for him to be Centre back for us tbf, and he wouldn’t have had as much technical quality as Zinchenko but he is known to be very aggressive off the ball. I’m not sure if this has anything to do with it, anyways it’s strange because I saw we had interest in zinchenko before shortinez.
He did. A bit. And he played LB. A bit.
But to spend £55m on a player that kind of plays in these positions is mental.
And long may it continue.
No I wasn’t justifying it, it was a response to Johnny 4 hats on him being targeted as a CB. We didn’t target him for that.
Martinez is a brilliant player, I watched him a few times at Ajax and in the CL after I bought him in a career mode! He would’ve succeeded here, as a lb or a cb, because technically and defensively he’s top and may still succeed at Utd; however, it’s one thing to play for a club that’s settled and established in their identity and another to star in a team that’s attempting to establish one. If Martinez played here we’d scaffold the team so that his weaknesses are offset, like we’re trying to do with Zinchenko but at Utd he’s… Read more »
Arteta was probably thinking of a player who could fill in for both Tierney and Gabriel, a player like White or Tomiyasu at the right side
Yes, plus Partey.
As have been established by now, would have been a great player for us and a fee of around 40mil would have been worth it too.
I think what this shows is the difference between a team with a plan and another whose only idea is to chase big names trying to fit them into EtH’s Ajaz template.
After years of selling players to City – Kolo, Adebayor, Nasri and Clichy comes to mind – it’s good that we are now buying players at a prime age from them. All this after managing to lure Arteta back to Arsenal. I guess we all know where Haaland is headed next to finally try and win the CL.
And Sagna.
And David Seaman.
We didn’t sell Sagna; he played out his contract and went on a free (as he was entitled to do). I think that’s true for Clichy as well. Nasri, as I recall, forced the move. It wasn’t as if any of those three were “mistakes” on Arsenal’s part–didn’t have a choice.
I appreciate what you mean, but I think circumstances had a lot to do with it. Both players had a year on their contract and were just too good to be backups at city.
I just don’t want your comment to reflect some sort of power shift between us and city and I’m not sure if that’s how you intended to come across or maybe you’re joking.
Aside from that, I will take huge encouragement that Jesus chose us when he could have gone anywhere else.
I’m not suggesting a power shift. It was a tongue in cheek comment, yes, but I’m also encouraged by the markedly different profile of new players we are bringing to the Club. Kudos to the Club for bringing the City duo this summer, who are straight starters in our team.
Ah yes, I’m pleased also. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think that finishing 5th we’d be able to attract that calibre of player but I’m so happy to have been proven wrong.
¢it€h are now OUR feeder club! Lol
I don’t know if anyone has noticed but, I have been following social media and sky pundits/talksport, everyone is talking about spurs being the closest to challenge the top 2, some suggestions Chelsea will rival that. But no one has mentioned us at all, I find it somewhat strange when we have an almost complete looking squad and there is no mention of us even having a chance ahead of spurs. When you consider how close we were to top 4 without a proper number 9, injuries and red cards and inexperience of the squad.
I prefer it this way.
Long may it continue. It’s baffling to me- sure, Conte is a good manager, but he’s not a prime Mourinho, go and titles will follow sort of guy. Juve titles during that time were basically playing with God mode turned on, and he came to Chelsea at a time when the rest of the league was in a real rut for 12 months. Inter was a fair achievement, but again, rest of serie A were awful that year. And they keep talking about this squad to rival City and Liverpool.. What?! I genuinely think our squad is stronger now, they’ve… Read more »
Spurs seem a really disjoined and weirdly configured side to me. The only player I can look at and say is decent is bissouma and there must have been a reason we didn’t go for him.
Richarlison is perfectly suited to spurs, useless. Really reliant and their English captain media darling kane and son, not getting any younger btw. Strange football system they have and I’m fascinated to see it fall apart when refs aren’t on their side for once.
Totally. I wouldn’t take a single player from their back 4 in ours, and BIssouma and Hojberg are fine but nothing special. I feel with the whole narrative I must be being being mega biased but I just don’t see what the fuss is about!
Son was not in the match against Chelsea, completely neutralised. Kane was hardly better–barely touched the ball, had one good pass (to Son) the entire match, and one very good chance where he did a Timo Werner impression. He scored the equaliser (on a corner that should never have happened), but that shouldn’t disguise what a poor match he had. The Spurs midfield had little creativity; Betancourt is not nearly as good a player as he has been hyped. Eric Dier is only a very slight upgrade on Rob Holding. If Gabriel Jesus had been playing for them, Chelsea would… Read more »
Not sure if Dier is an upgrade on Rob.
Dier is an upgrade on the Neanderthal. Only very slightly though.
I’m not having that.
Rob Holding is way better than Eric fucking Dier.
Agreed, but I bet Southgate still picks Dier for the World Cup….and fkn Maguire n all….. how to ruin a decent squad with an incompetent Mgr…!!
… and the draw flattered them yesterday. They were comprehensively outpl
ayed for about 85 of the 90 minutes. They were camp in their half for virtually all of the first half and 40 minutes of the second.
Wait until Son goes down with a hammy. And they’re forced out of their comfort zone and preferred style of play. It’s bound to happen at some point.
Then, Chelsea isn’t really that good a team defensively– and Spuds were mostly closed down yesterday– until Chelsea blinked at the end.
I might be wrong but I’m sure Souness called us title contenders yesterday which he must’ve done cause it pricked my ears up & normally I blank his constant whinging out. Don’t get the Spurs love in, they were appalling, wouldn’t have known Kane, Son & Kulusevski were playing unless you’d seen the team sheet but they’ll probably batter Wolves & it’ll be like yesterday never happened & Tony Tantrums will be best manager in the world again
I heard that and I wasn’t sure if he was taking the piss or genuinely giving us credit. Regardless, we have to ask ourselves, where was Pogba in all of this?
Spurs were really bad–so bad that I thought I must have badly underestimated Chelsea, in their season of disarray. Tiago and Koulibaly were hardly troubled and Reese James looked like prime Dani Alves. (Actually James is a really good, if not especially likeable, player.) I was thinking third place is in reach, which I now think depends on whether Clelsea get a striker.
Spurs were so bad that even United would’ve fancied their chances…okay that’s probably a step too far. It all depends which striker they get but it seems to be leaning towards Auba & they desperately need one because on that showing they’ll be lucky to get 10 goals from a front 3 of Mount/Havertz/Sterling(still weird seeing him in a Chelsea shirt)
I’ve noticed it too and I do find it strange. I think they’re mostly looking at the manager and the forward line, because the rest of the team looks a little janky to me and that was played out yesterday. How they got anything out of that game against Chelsea was beyond me, they were totally dominated the whole match. I’d also say the manner of our collapse last season wouldn’t have helped perceptions. But I’m not worried about that at all, I think we tend to do better as the underdog anyway, rather than the front runner with a… Read more »
They got a lot of help from VAR….That’s how. Sometimes I wonder what the lot in the VAR room are doing..Are they watching the game or not…? Cause the push on Jesus back last week was as crystal clear as the hair tugged on Cucurella this week….yet they somehow contrived to miss it…Unbelievable…
The way those hair yankers played yesterday I wouldn’t give them the hopes of even making the Europe Conference League next season. They’ll need biased refs to get there and I suppose they have that so who knows. Apart from Kulusevski they look fucking shit anyway.
He was terrible against Chelsea.
He can only retain his standard for so long while surrounded by those clowns I guess. Give the man a new club. He’s suffered enough FFS!
But that is perfect, less stress/pressure for players, Arteta and the rest of staff.
Trust me this silence won’t last long, we string together 6-7 wins and you watch the daily rags bombarding us with the ‘Arsenal in crisis’ articles. But it’s all good and well.
I think we will win the PL this year and won’t lose a game. We have so much core power and our defence looks solid.
I’m not going to call you crazy, because I also have a dream. My dream includes us winning the treble and Arsene Wenger joining in on the celebrations with his protege at the Emirates and the open bus parade.
We are all allowed to dream.
I can see that happen in 2-3 years. And I am dead serious
I like your dream.
I get a feeling theres a fair few spuds fans working in sports media these days hence the constant bigging up the past few seasons. I can’t think of any other reasons for it
Gary Neville was still pulling himself about over Tottenham when he had his tears-before -bedtime bust up with Jamie “look at me when I’m talking to you” Redknapp. Then we have Souness purring like a Highland wildcat over what he called “pure entertainment” of the handbags between the Reverend Kane from Poltergeist and Mr 70’s Toupee. Ok, to be fair, it was fucking hilarious, but you can bet your last Scottish penny that if Arteta had been involved, Souness would have wanted him hung drawn and quartered at Edinburgh Castle. The media Spud love-in continues, but ultimately all these idiots… Read more »
It’ll be so sweet watching Spuds implode this season.
And watching all the media cunts that are still praising them to the high heavens, squirm and choke on their words.
Especially Neville, Souness, Keane, Redknapp, Danny fucking Mills and Jermaine Penas.
It seems to me that the plan is to frustrate and confuse opponents by have loose structures on many parts of the field- when you see how adaptable the individual players are in changing places and spaces. And they seem to know how to complement each other very well. Let’s call it great team work and hope it continues in an upward trajectory. Happy days, lads and lasses!
There’s a term for this, isn’t there?
Total Football!
Next summer window will be a treat. It’ll be about signing two prime talent to further improve the first team for CL football.
I can see it.
When thinking about where big improvements can be brought in, it’s hard to think of obvious places, which is a wonderful feeling! It’ll all be revealed throughout the season of course. Some players will rise, others will fall, competition for places is key! I’m also looking forward to seeing how a couple of our loanees get on this season. Personally, I think we’re a wide attacker short as Arteta clearly doesn’t fancy Pepe (I really hope we can find a taker for him so he doesn’t waste his talents on the bench). I’m curious to see whether Nketia develops as… Read more »
See this is when you know it’s good, when you already look forward to what’s to come in future whilst excited about the present.
Another striker, preferably one blessed with height, is a must. Jesus and Nketiah – even with Martinelli as third striker – won’t be enough for EPL and CL
Maybe another left footed CB to replace Holding.
It is so difficult to see where to really upgrade like you said.
Maybe Xhaka may move if we are not giving him a new contract this season.
Jesus and Zinchenko coming with that champion’s mindset, back in the day 4-2 against Leicester there would be no complaints. Now we’ve got Jesus saying he shoulda had 4 to himself and Zinchenko disappointed to concede (same would of been for Ramsdale, he always seemed furious in all or nothing when conceding seemed avoidable).
Love the attitude of the squad that although we’ve started strong they know improvement is needed, especially in putting opponents away and keeping the pressure on them. The season is still early and the players are still working into peak condition (not to mention dealing with the high heat) so know that each week they will get strong in their levels of effort and intensity throughout the matches.
If it were MU,the penalty would have stood.Thats why the FA mudt hold the mo to account for their decisions.These guys are getting away with blunders,week in and week out.
The Chelsea player had his hair pulled.
How can the var miss such an incident.
The Fa must fine these mo for such blunders
That was horrible event and ignoring hair pull incidents will lead to increase in such actions and Dean+Taylor should explain the reasons behind not stopping the play and sending off Romero.
As a fan I’m going to sit back and enjoy the positives, but it’s great to see the player’s have this mindset to make sure they focus on and work on the negatives
The fact he thinks conceding two goals is a lot is a good sign.
A couple of things to improve:
1. Their first goal
2. Their second goal
Otherwise near perfect!
I predict we won’t score many like the first goal again this season….
Plus we could have had a few more goals ourselves given the chances we missed.
It’s fucking incredible how him and Jesus have slotted into the team so effortlessly!
Arsenal escaped the award of the penalty.Var was supposed to help avoid making wrong decisions.
Arsenal were hard done last season as Chelsea were last nite
A former respected ref had said the Spurs players had fouled the blue.
Add the hair pulling incident snd u wonder what the var guys were doing.
This ref shd not officiate anither epl game
Arteta has shown…he can manage ( twice Auba/Xhaka ) a full on crisis…he can really help the careers of young stars…. the team, commitment to club is the top priority…. second chances are almost always available … a dedication to homegrown young players … very very high standards …. Playing modern attacking football, all the time except when down a man. If/when we make CL this year many of the worlds best young stars will be telling their agents I want to play for Arsenal. I also believe Kronkes have been very supportive and astute in helping him and the… Read more »
I like Dhaka’s new role, he seems to like it too. However, against technical opposition, the space he vacates could prove costly unless filled up by Zinchenko and others.
Isn’t being the capital of Bangladesh enough?
Zinks will sort them kinks
We’re seeing the value of having made the key transfers early in the season.
And we can’t overstate the value of a) Arteta knowing Zinchenko and Jesus and vice versa, and b) the players’ familiarity with Arteta’s preferred style of play, which has been informed by Pep G.
This particular set of circumstances is unlikely to happen again. It was brilliant of Arsenal to capitalize.
With this kind of mentality the squad has now I see us going places in the coming years, not too far though 😊 the team looks hungry for things which is very good for any football team COYG
This mindset, this attitude is what we need even more of! Take positives but reflect, acknowledge, and improve what can be improved without playing blame game!
After watching Zinchenko play just 2 games, I am a big fan!