Nuno Tavares has become unexpected goalscoring threat ahead of Arsenal return

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Arsenal must be delighted with Nuno Tavares after the left back scored yet another goal for Marseille on Sunday evening.

Over 24 hours after Arsenal’s dramatic 4-2 win over Aston Villa, Tavares and Marseille were involved in a high-scoring affair of their own.

Tavares helped Marseille beat Toulouse 3-2 on Sunday night after the home side took a 1-0 lead.

Chancel Mbemba and Cengiz Under turned the game on its head for Marseille before Tavares added number three.

Toulouse did get another goal back but Marseille held on for another vital three points.

Arsenal and Tavares both had fine weekends but the Gunners may be somewhat surprised by the player Tavares is becoming.

Arsenal loanee Nuno Tavares emerging as a goalscoring threat

Tavares scored a lovely goal against Toulouse, driving into the box down left before firing a shot through Maxime Dupe.

That now gives Tavares a pretty incredible record of six goals in 20 games for Marseille this season.

The 23-year-old is putting up numbers that wingers or attacking midfielders would be proud of – probably even some strikers!

Folarin Balogun’s goalscoring form in France isn’t a huge surprise but surely nobody at Arsenal was expecting this from Tavares.

When Tavares returns from his loan spell this summer, Arsenal will have an unexpected goal threat rejoining Mikel Arteta’s ranks.

We do though have to talk about Tavares’ defending.

Toulouse’s first goal came down Tavares’ side as he was caught out of position.

Ado Onaiwu’s late goal didn’t matter in the end but again, Tavares was caught giving the striker too much room to volley in a fine strike.

Maxifoot rated Tavares at just 5 out of 10 on Sunday, criticising his ‘catastrophic’ defending whilst suggest he is ‘capable of the best as well as the worst’.

Tavares is able to use that attacking ability as a wing back but defensively, he still looks short of what Arsenal are ideally seeking.

This leaves Mikel Arteta with a dilemma; harness Tavares’ attacking ability going forward or look to cash in this summer and let somebody else deal with his defensive issues.

Arteta and Arsenal have time to figure that out, but Tavares will be causing some confusion at the Emirates Stadium.