Saturday’s 3-0 victory at home to Nottingham Forest was sweet in so many different ways for Arsenal. It temporarily lifted them to the top of the Premier League table, they brushed aside a team in European competition with total ease and ensured former rival Ange Postecoglou got off to the worst possible start with his new side. To put the cherry on the cake, the Gunners looked more comfortable than ever before in the absence of arguably their two best players, with injured duo Bukayo Saka and William Saliba watching from the sidelines.
Though Viktor Gyokeres was on the scoresheet and Noni Madueke dazzled on the wing, it was the performance of central midfielder Martin Zubimendi that really caught the eye. The Spain international broke the deadlock with a swerving volley from the edge of the box, before rounding off proceedings with a header which deflected and looped into the net, both attempts too tricky for even PFA Team of the Year goalkeeper Matz Sels to keep out.
Amid the flurry of additions further up the pitch, Zubimendi’s arrival went a little under the radar this summer. Yet he may well prove to be the best buy of the bunch, and he’s only just kicking into gear.
Saturday’s 3-0 victory at home to Nottingham Forest was sweet in so many different ways for Arsenal. It temporarily lifted them to the top of the Premier League table, they brushed aside a team in European competition with total ease and ensured former rival Ange Postecoglou got off to the worst possible start with his new side. To put the cherry on the cake, the Gunners looked more comfortable than ever before in the absence of arguably their two best players, with injured duo Bukayo Saka and William Saliba watching from the sidelines.
Though Viktor Gyokeres was on the scoresheet and Noni Madueke dazzled on the wing, it was the performance of central midfielder Martin Zubimendi that really caught the eye. The Spain international broke the deadlock with a swerving volley from the edge of the box, before rounding off proceedings with a header which deflected and looped into the net, both attempts too tricky for even PFA Team of the Year goalkeeper Matz Sels to keep out.
Amid the flurry of additions further up the pitch, Zubimendi’s arrival went a little under the radar this summer. Yet he may well prove to be the best buy of the bunch, and he’s only just kicking into gear.
Though he is very much an Arsenal player now, it so nearly came to pass that Zubimendi headed to the Premier League to don a different shade of red. Liverpool thought they had reached an agreement to sign the midfielder last summer, making a big song and dance about their confidence of concluding a deal, only for the player to decline the opportunity to stay at boyhood club Real Sociedad for one more year.
The Reds didn’t miss Zubimendi all too much, running away with the Premier League title with Ryan Gravenberch emerging as a top-class alternative from within, but those on Merseyside must have been peeved off when they heard Arsenal had secured his signature. During an episode of the Stick To Football podcast, Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher spoke of his belief that the Gunners had nicked the midfielder.
“I’m convinced now that Mikel Arteta definitely stole him from Liverpool,” Carragher said in August. “He had agreed to come to Liverpool. He said he was coming – and at the last minute he said, ‘I don’t want to come. I’ll have another year [at Sociedad].’ Mikel Arteta’s from the Basque area. There’s no doubt he’s been into him and said ‘We’re signing [Mikel] Merino this season, we’ll come for you next season.’”
Whether Arsenal’s pitch to Zubimendi came in the summer of 2024 or sometime thereafter, he was clearly impressed enough to make the painful decision to leave Sociedad. So much of the reporting in the aftermath of Liverpool’s failed move centred on his reluctance to leave San Sebastian as he was a homebody, yet here he is beyond his comfort zone in a team now under immense pressure to deliver silverware. Arsenal and Zubimendi must have seen something in each other long ago to make them seem like the perfect fit for one another.
Arteta’s way with words, even in a second language, have set himself up for success as Arsenal manager. He’s had buy-in from nearly everyone he’s encountered during a tenure which is nearing its sixth-year anniversary. The 43-year-old is very careful with the language and vocabulary he uses, so it was notable to pick out what exactly he labelled as Zubimendi’s key strengths upon arrival.
“Martin is a player who will bring a huge amount of quality and football intelligence to our team,” Arteta said in the club’s unveiling of the midfielder. “He will fit in really well and has all the attributes to be a key player for us. The standard he has consistently performed at over the last few seasons for both club and country is exactly why we are so excited to have him with us.”
The phrase of note there is ‘football intelligence’. Arsenal have evolved into one of the toughest teams to play in all of Europe, a side built on strong foundations and marginal gains. To add a not-so-physical midfielder from a completely different environment in La Liga was quite an understated risk, but it appears their strength in recruitment has shone through again.
Zubimendi has been brought in not only to keep the project ticking over, but add a new dimension to it. His predecessor, Thomas Partey, blew hot and cold too often, and this erratic discrepancy between performances undermined what the rest of the team was trying to do. It was necessary for Arsenal to not only target a consistent performer, as Arteta outlined above, but a player with that little bit extra.
As is obviously the case in reverse, Zubimendi has been impressed by what Arteta can offer him as a manager. “I don’t know what Mikel Arteta saw in me, but what I saw in him is that he’s a top coach in Europe,” the midfielder said in July. “When I wanted to leave Real, I wanted a quality coach, and I think I’ve found one. I’ve seen how obsessive and detailed he is with his game, so I think I’ve found the right one.”
For the most part, Arsenal conducted their summer business within one succinct period of the window. Between July 1 and 26, they announced the arrivals of Kepa Arrizabalaga, Zubimendi, Christian Norgaard, Noni Madueke, Cristhian Mosquera and Gyokeres. Only Eberechi Eze, a signing almost out of opportunism amid the search for another versatile forward, arrived outside that period, officially becoming a Gunner on August 23.
New sporting director Andrea Berta has received a fair amount of praise for his work since taking to this post at the end of March, yet the signing of Zubimendi is said to have been one that predated his arrival. It was first reported by the uber-reliable Sami Mokbel all the way back in January that Arsenal had effectively wrapped up the transaction, and that all that were missing were the formalities. For months, there was little to add to the story. Privately, Arsenal were convinced the deal was done, even despite reports from Spain claiming Real Madrid had made late enquiries. Only when the signing was confirmed on July 6, a fortnight after Zubimendi had jetted into London for a medical, did a saga spanning half a year with little way of updates come to a close.
There are other factors that saw Zubimendi slip out of the spotlight, however. The position he plays, as usually the deepest midfielder, is far from the most glamorous. Arsenal’s other signings captured the imagination a little more, not least another goal-machine in Gyokeres – with his iconic celebration to boot – and a dynamic winger in Madueke, while stealing Eze from under the noses of nemeses Tottenham added an extra layer to the ‘all roads lead home’ narrative.
Add all of these components together and it makes sense why the midfield metronome wasn’t held in the same breath. There’s still something old-school Arsenal about Zubimendi that feels right in spirit. A technical Spanish midfielder with an eye for a pass? That’s early Emirates Stadium-era heritage, and somewhere along the line that aspect got lost. This signing is as important as the others in making the Gunners more watchable and entertaining again.
Zubimendi’s adaptation has been so smooth it’s hard to imagine an Arsenal without him. For the player himself, he must have felt at home having been reunited with two former Sociedad team-mates. His long-term midfield partner in San Sebastian, Merino, made the move to the Emirates Stadium one year earlier, and knew on a personal level how difficult following the same path was to Zubimendi.
“I didn’t want to put too much pressure on him; in the end, it’s a decision he has to make on his own,” Merino told El Diario Vasco shortly after Zubimendi’s unveiling. “Leaving Real Sociedad is a very hard step; it was already hard for me to make that decision, and I imagine it’s even harder for him, being from there. I didn’t try to convince him out of respect for him and Real Sociedad, nor did I pressure him to come. He did what came from his heart.”
Together, Merino and Zubimendi made Sociedad one of La Liga’s most dependable teams, constantly turning in the seven or eight-out-of-ten performances you’d want in your engine room. At its peak, this led to Champions League qualification and the 2019-20 Copa del Rey, despite La Real’s low net spend.
Earlier in their careers, the duo were joined by Real Madrid loanee Martin Odegaard. The Arsenal captain was glowing in his assessment of Zubimendi during an appearance on the Men In Blazers podcast: “I’ve played a little bit with him before in Spain, so I knew his qualities. A top player, as you say, he can find any pass, you know, he can break the lines, he can drive with the ball. He’s also so smart, you know, intelligent to read where the ball is going to land. And he picks up a lot of second balls. And yeah, he really controls the game. It’s going to give us a new dimension there.”
Again, the standout traits described of Zubimendi relate to his footballing IQ. Arteta must have picked Merino and Odegaard’s brains for the inside scoop prior to green-lighting a pursuit, and it’s a move already starting to pay dividends.
On Saturday, Zubimendi announced himself to the Premier League with two goals which weren’t of his ordinary arsenal (pun both unintended and yet fully intended). The opener was his first-ever goal from outside the 18-yard box, a fierce volley from distance which masterfully curled away from Forest goalkeeper Sels, and he then rose highest to meet Leandro Trossard’s cross on the second phase of a free-kick.
“I take zero credit for that incredible execution, the timing, the way he connects with the ball and the way the ball travels in that trajectory,” Arteta said at his press conference of Zubimendi’s opener. “Certainly, he’s given us a lot of positive things, his presence, his authority on the pitch, the way he connects with the players and that composure that he’s having. If he starts to add assists and goals like this, it’s another dimension of a player.”
Arteta also told club media: “He was unbelievable, the two goals are very difficult to score. Martin is bringing such a presence, composure and understanding of the game that makes the team flow and play better. And on top of that, he’s adding goals and assists, so that’s the trajectory that we have to maintain with him.”
It could be that this was a piece of opportunism to spin the narrative any which way Arteta pleased, but so far already this season, Arsenal have scored nine goals in four matches through five different scorers. There is evidently a want to spread the love around when it comes to finding the net.
Zubimendi now returns to the Basque country with his new Arsenal team-mates to take on the historic rivals of his beloved Sociedad in Athletic Club. The Gunners have already been handed a boost by the news that Nico Williams, a former target before he signed a new ten-year contract in Bilbao, will miss out through injury, and they should have full confidence of taking home all three points.
Ernesto Valverde has done a fine job back at San Mames since returning to the dugout in 2022, but even though he steered Athletic back into the Champions League last season via La Liga, there is still lingering disappointment in how their European campaign split apart at the last. Drawn against this Manchester United side in the semi-finals of the Europa League, and with Tottenham awaiting in the final, the all-Basques found themselves on the end of a 7-1 hammering on aggregate. Seven-one.
What’s more, Arteta’s Arsenal now have that added pedigree in the Champions League that the club have long missed. Obliterating Real Madrid home and away put the Gunners back on the continental map, despite falling to PSG in the next round. With reinforcements like Zubimendi emboldening their core, they now enter the competition as one of the favourites on merit.
