Arsenal have the change to make their season a success by winning the Europa League, but that will be a difficult task if their January failings come back to bite them.
The Gunners need to be at their best between now and the end of the season, especially in the Europa League, but unfortunately, they won’t be able to field their best XI in many of these games.
Indeed, Kieran Tierney’s injury has meant that Arsenal have had to do some serious reshuffling, and with the Scot not expected back for at least six weeks, he’s going to miss some vitally important games.
Unfortunately, Arsenal don’t have a natural backup to Tierney available in the squad, and that meant that they had to play Granit Xhaka at left-back against Sheffield United and Slavia Prague
Xhaka did a fine job against the Blades and an even better one in the Europa League, but when you come up against tougher opposition you don’t want to be utilising a midfielder at full-back.
Arsenal had identified that they needed a new left-back in January, as they reportedly looked into signing Ryan Bertrand during the window, but the one man they were most keen to sign in that position was Junior Firpo.
Indeed, the Gunners reportedly made a last-gasp effort to bring the Barcelona left-back in on deadline day, but Edu couldn’t get that deal over the line.
Going into the remainder of the season with only one recognised senior left-back was always going to be risky, and it’s come back to bite Arsenal in the worst possible way.
If their move for Firpo came off, the Gunners wouldn’t be in such a situation at the moment, but as we know, they failed to bring him in and now they’re scrambling for a solution.
Firpo would have done an excellent job as well. He’s got a real engine on him, and much like Tierney, he’s great going forward as well as at the back.
Perhaps the full-back is best summed up by his comments about idolising Real Madrid star Dani Carvajal.
“Dani Carvajal seems like a good player to mirror my game on: he attacks, defends and is very intense. He’s what I’d like to become someday,” Firpo said.
Sadly, Arsenal didn’t get this one over the line, and while their left-back troubles haven’t caused them too much of a problem yet, it seems as though it’s an accident waiting to happen.
The Gunners are surely now regretting their failure to land Firpo back in January.
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