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In what was a much-awaited debut, Pablo Marí finally steps out on the pitch in Arsenal colours for the first time since his loan move to the North London outfit in January. Mikel Arteta cried out for a left-footed centre-back and the Raul Sanhelli's answer to his manager's needs was the Spanish centre-back from Flamengo, who has been bought on an initial loan deal with an option to buy for €6 million.
The 26-year old partnered David Luiz as Portsmouth hosted Arsenal at Fratton Park in the 4th round of the Emirates FA Cup and also started against West Ham last night. A sound option in defence, Marí is an experienced player who could come handy for Mikel Arteta as injury concerns for Shkodran Mustafi and Rob Holding are constant.
He has strung together consistent performances week in week out for his former team Flamengo, and although the level of football is incredibly high in England, he has had two impressive performance against Portsmouth and West Ham, constantly winning aerials, playing accurate diagonals and bringing his midfielders into the game with ease.
The 6ft 3 defender completed 3.8 accurate long balls per 90 at Flamengo, which explains the first thing he brings to Arsenal's set-up, i.e. passing. In 22 appearances, he had a passing accuracy of 87.6% registering 52.1 passes per game. In the process, he bagged two goals and an assist while keeping as many as 10 clean sheets.
At Manchester City, Mikel Arteta had Aymeric Laporte; a left-footed centre-back who is known for his long range passing and composure on the ball. For the exact same reason, Pablo Marí was brought to the Emirates.
Although a relatively inexpensive signing, Marí was a bit of a gamble as Arsenal desperately needed a quality centre-back to hold the fort and have any chance of putting up a fight for a Champions League spot. Fans were unconvinced when they first heard Arsenal are looking to sign a defender for €6m from Brazil, but completing deals in January are easier said than done.
Two games in, and the Spaniard has been robust at the back, kept two back-to-back clean sheets - getting just the start he would have wished to have in London. Marí brings experience and composure to the back line, and is a brilliant aerial threat to have in the team. His only weakness is pace, he can be outran by a forward.
It is yet to be seen whether he would be a regular starter for Arsenal, taking into account Shkodran Mustafi's brilliant burst in form and David Luiz's long-standing experience of playing in the top-flight. Luiz has been a favourite for Arteta, as he has played every league game since the Spaniard took over. The veteran defender edges past Mustafi in terms of passing, as he has the ability to tear apart any resurgent midfield with a single pass, while Mustafi is a better natural defender. For now, it seems the Luiz-Marí duo would play the upcoming games until Mustafi returns to full fitness.
The real test will be on Wednesday, when the Gunners travel to Manchester to take on Pep Guardiola's side, a homecoming for Marí. He will be up against the likes of Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva, and Kevin De Bruyne, and this might just be the perfect scenario for him to put down his stamp on the Premier League.
Against Portsmouth, Arsenal often fell back to a 3-man defence as Sokratis Papastathopoulos was the one who started ahead of Hector Bellerin and Ainsley Cory Maitland-Niles in a 4-man defence on paper. However, with the ball, Marí and Sokratis were the wide centre-backs with David Luiz through the centre. But against West Ham, Arsenal played an orthodox 4-man defence with the ball and without it, having Sokratis play the natural right-back role and not as a right centre-back. So, it seems that Mikel Arteta is still finding the right system to deploy his players in.
With 3 wins in the last 4 games for both the teams, the upcoming Manchester City vs Arsenal game is a must-watch and the limelight would obviously be on Arsenal's defence, irrespective of how they perform. For now, Pablo Marí has been just what Arsenal fans cried out for - a player who does not panic with the ball at his feet. His passing and positioning has been decent, he reads the game welland looks like a great tackler of the ball.
Also see | Opinion: Relegation-threatened West Ham deserved more against Arsenal
