Mikel Arteta's Arsenal have been flying so far this season and deservedly sit top of the Premier League following ten wins from 12. The Gunners have had standout performers in each area of the pitch with Gabriel Martinelli, Granit Xhaka and William Saliba all surpassing the expectations placed on them at the beginning of the campaign.
Martinelli and Xhaka have both been heavily among the goals so far this season with the latter being given the role of joining attacks while Saliba has been imperious in the Arsenal backline after returning from a successful loan spell at Marseille where he was crowned Ligue 1 Young Player of the Year.
With much of the focus, and deservedly so, on that trio the limelight has shifted away from two players in particular, who despite playing out of position, have thrived.
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Ben White, at right back, and Takehiro Tomiyasu, at left back, are Arteta's chosen first team full backs at the moment and are providing consistently solid defensive displays making it difficult for either to be dropped despite Kieran Tierney's availability.
The duo both joined the club last summer with White arriving from Brighton for £50million and Tomiyasu joining the Gunners for £16million from Bologna. White made his Gunners debut in the 2-0 defeat to Brentford last season before missing the following two games with Covid, while Tomiyasu made his debut after Arsenal had lost their opening three Premier League games in the 1-0 over Norwich.
60 appearances were made by the pair in total last season (White 37, Tomiyasu 23) and despite their differing preferred positions, White had been selected ahead of Tomiyasu at right back for the opening few matches of this campaign. However, since the injury to Oleksandr Zinchenko, the pair have lined up on opposite flanks for the last four Premier League games conceding three goals and keeping two clean sheets in the process.
Saliba has been the main recipient of the praise regarding Arsenal's impressive defensive displays but when speaking on Premier League Productions, Owen Hargreaves, while also complimenting the Frenchman, brought up the importance of White and Tomiyasu.
“That was the weak-link before (right-back), wasn’t it?!” said Hargreaves. “But a guy like Tomiyasu, he doesn’t have a bad game. Ben White rarely has a bad game.
“Then you have someone like Saliba, who plays like he’s 29 and not in his early 20s, so the whole Arsenal team is performing.”
The Gunners have struggled to find a consistent performer at right back with Cedric Soares, Hector Bellerin and Ainsley Maitland-Niles all receiving opportunities in the position in recent years with none truly making it their own.
The biggest plus from this positional experiment of Tomiyasu and White is that Arsenal now know they can rely on the duo to perform in a position that may not be where they're most comfortable and it has also highlighted the impressive defensive depth at the club with Tierney being left out.
It also means Arsenal can be patient with Zinchenko's calf problem that has kept him out for the last four weeks, and with the Ukrainian back in training, he does not need to be rushed into a backline that is already performing at a high level.
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