Arsenal's Left Flank Dilemma: The Need for a Superstar Winger

Arsenal’s attack has changed faces, but one thing hasn’t shifted: the feeling that something is still missing on the left.

A year on from splashing out on Viktor Gyokeres to finally crack the No.9 puzzle, Mikel Arteta finds himself leaning on Kai Havertz through the middle and watching his big-money striker accept life as an impact substitute. Gyokeres hit 21 goals in his debut season. That usually buys you security. At Arsenal, it has not guaranteed a starting shirt.

Around him, the supporting cast has been ripped up.

Leandro Trossard, the man for the big moment in last season’s title charge, has gone to Besiktas. Gabriel Martinelli, seven years after walking through the doors at London Colney, has taken the Saudi route with Al-Hilal. Between them, Arsenal have lost two players who repeatedly changed games from the bench or the left channel.

There were ambitious whispers of a move for Vinicius Junior when his Real Madrid contract talks dragged on, but the Brazilian stayed put at the Santiago Bernabeu. A genuine ‘Galactico’ never came close to north London.

Bradley Barcola did. When Paris Saint-Germain opened the door to a sale, Arsenal asked the question. The answer was brutal: £123 million. Liverpool swallowed that fee. Arsenal walked away.

So Christos Tzolis now patrols the left, talented and willing, but still very much a work in progress. The rest of the squad is loaded with quality, yet that flank remains the one obvious upgrade point in a squad that wants to dominate England and Europe.

Jermaine Pennant believes the gap is too big to ignore.

Speaking to GOAL, in association with NetBet Casino, the former winger didn’t dance around it when asked if Arsenal need a “superstar” left winger.

“They have to at some point because teams are not going to sit dormant,” he said. “Teams around them are not going to not strengthen in those areas. Come January, I'm sure the likes of Chelsea, Man United, Liverpool and Man City are going to go in the market again and strengthen again. So they have to.”

Then came the punchline.

“And this is weird saying, but I think they've actually got weaker. I think Arsenal are weaker, especially going forward anyway, than they were last season. Because they've lost some really clutch individuals.”

Trossard tops that list for Pennant. The Belgian’s goals were not just numbers, they were turning points.

“I think without Trossard they probably wouldn't have won the league. The West Ham goal, you could go on with the important goals he scored - Aston Villa. Then they've lost Martinelli, yeah, his number's dwindled but again it's still a good impact player you can bring off the bench. They've lost him.”

The replacements? Thin on the ground.

“And they've not really replaced that apart from Tzolis. So if he gets injured or whatnot, their left side's kind of doomed. You’ve got to put [Eberechi] Eze out there, he's not a winger, he's a midfielder.

“Yes, they’ve strengthened at the back. So I think going forward they definitely need to strengthen. Because they've probably fallen out of favour with Gyokeres and they've reverted back to [Kai] Havertz, who was never really their 15, 20-goal-a-season guy.”

That is the tension at the heart of Arsenal’s early-season story. On paper, the numbers look immaculate. Havertz has led the line to start the 2026-27 campaign. Gyokeres has accepted the role of late-game weapon. Martin Odegaard has rediscovered his spark between the lines. Bukayo Saka already has two goals and looks as relentless as ever.

Four games, four wins: three in the Premier League, one in the Champions League against Napoli. No obvious cracks. No dropped points. Arteta can reasonably argue that he has the tools to go again on all fronts.

Yet the left side still nags away at the picture. Tzolis carries the responsibility for a zone that used to be shared by Trossard’s intelligence and Martinelli’s chaos. One injury, one dip in form, and the options narrow fast.

Arsenal have loosened the purse strings over recent windows. They have shown they will spend to stay in the fight. The question now is not whether they can, but when they decide they must.

If January turns into another arms race among the elite, can Arsenal really afford to go into the second half of the season without that superstar on the left?