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Just a few months after landing in the Premier League, Martin Zubimendi won widespread recognition for his excellent footwork and tactical awareness. Mikel Arteta even publicly hailed him as Arsenal's "best player" after leading the team to a narrow victory over Crystal Palace last October. In that match, the opponents tried to restrict the Spanish midfielder with man-marking tactics, but he still showed impressive ability to cope.
At the start of the season, Zubimendi's performance exceeded the club's high expectations. Arsenal chased him for a year and finally succeeded in signing him amid competition with Liverpool and Real Madrid. The team knew he was a talented player, but they did not expect him to quickly become a core figure in the system. Theoretically, as the season progressed and he adapted to the rhythm of the Premier League, his performance should have gotten better and better. However, the reality was quite the opposite: there was a significant decline in both his form and confidence. In the defeat to Bournemouth last Saturday, he even appeared extremely unconfident in his own abilities, which was worrying.
Teammates also noticed Zubimendi's anxiety and nervousness. In the first half, shortly before Leandro Trossard scored a penalty, Declan Rice, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Gabriel Magalhães all came forward to comfort him. The teammates were well aware that Zubimendi was in urgent need of support at this moment. The data also confirmed his slump: in his first 10 appearances of the season, he performed almost perfectly, touching the ball 71 times per game and completing 55 successful passes; in the last 10 games, the data plummeted to 56 touches and 39 successful passes per game.
The most intuitive reason for this situation was overfatigue. So far, he has accumulated 3,751 minutes of playing time this season, the most among Arsenal's outfield players, and also ranked third among midfielders in the top five European leagues, only behind Dominik Szoboszlai and Max Eggestein of Freiburg. Unlike Szoboszlai, this was his first season in the Premier League with extremely high physical confrontation intensity. Arteta also admitted that Zubimendi was currently struggling: “When a player plays so many games, it is almost impossible to maintain a top-level performance all the time. I haven't seen anyone able to do that in the Premier League this season. This is an inevitable process in a player's growth, and the shorter the slump lasts, the better.”
Worse still, Arteta did not trust Zubimendi's substitute, Christian Nørgaard. The Danish midfielder joined from Brentford for about £10 million last summer, but has never started a Premier League game so far, with a total of only 56 minutes of league playing time, the least among Arsenal's first-team players. This also put a heavier physical burden on Rice. For most of this season, Rice has been playing through injuries and even failed to participate in training before the Champions League quarter-final against Sporting CP. In terms of playing time, Zubimendi ranked second among Premier League midfielders, while Rice ranked fourth.
For Arsenal, Nørgaard's transfer has so far been unsuccessful. Although he was popular in the team and his leadership was recognized, the harsh reality was that the coaching staff always believed he could not share the pressure on Zubimendi and Rice. No matter how tired the two were, Nørgaard was still absent from league appearances. In the end, Arsenal's key midfielders were overwhelmed and their form was on the verge of collapse. Last summer transfer window, Arsenal strengthened almost all positions except the defensive midfield. Last season, the substitute for this position was Jorginho, who had won multiple major championships and possessed top-level skills. Even if Nørgaard had outstanding off-field qualities, his on-field ball-holding ability and technical level were far inferior to him.
If Arsenal wants to compete for the Premier League, Champions League or even the double, they must rely on Zubimendi and Rice to maintain their best form. They are the team's brains and legs. Once they malfunction, Arsenal's defense will become more vulnerable and their offense will become more ineffective. The question then arises: can they regain their peak form in the remaining matches of the season, especially the crucial game against Manchester City this weekend? Rice persisted through injuries, while Zubimendi was physically and mentally exhausted. Nevertheless, Arteta still trusted the Spanish midfielder very much: "The future of this team is bright," he insisted. “We have proven that we are capable of competing with European champions.”
