Arteta's Tactical Gamble: Zubimendi at Right-Back for Champions League Final
Arteta’s boldest Champions League final call might already be hiding in plain sight.
On the eve of Arsenal’s showdown with PSG, the headlines circle around one question: how do you stop Khvicha Kvaratskhelia on the biggest club stage of all? Mikel Arteta has injuries to juggle, form to reward and egos to manage, but everything keeps coming back to the same problem – and to one name.
Martin Zubimendi.
A clue from a cold night in Georgia
On Thursday, UEFA dropped a seemingly innocuous clip on X. Not from this season’s Champions League, not even from club football. It was Spain away to Georgia last November, a routine 4-0 win in a World Cup qualifier.
Zubimendi scored that night. More importantly, he produced a moment that now feels strangely relevant: sprinting back down the flank and cleanly robbing Kvaratskhelia, one-on-one, in full flow.
Tomorrow, Arsenal must find a way to do exactly that for 90 minutes – and possibly more – against a PSG side built to isolate their Georgian superstar and let him go to work. That video suddenly looks less like nostalgia and more like a tactical breadcrumb.
Timber, Mosquera… or something different?
Arteta’s first dilemma sits at right-back and hinges on the fitness of Jurrien Timber. The Dutchman has finally returned to training this week after a groin injury suffered against Everton in mid-March, but he has not played a single minute since.
Being medically fit is one thing. Being ready to be thrown straight into a Champions League final against one of the most devastating wide players on the planet is quite another. This is not a gentle reintroduction; this is a furnace.
Cristhian Mosquera is pushing hard. Naturally a centre-back, he offers pace and physical presence, but not the kind of nimble, low-to-the-ground mobility full-backs usually need when Kvaratskhelia starts twisting and feinting in those tight wide pockets.
On paper, Mosquera is the safer, more orthodox choice. A defender in a defender’s role. Arteta, though, has never been particularly wedded to orthodoxy.
Zubimendi, the wildcard at right-back
Last Sunday at Crystal Palace, the away end did a double-take when the teams were announced. Zubimendi at right-back. No buildup, no long explanation, just a straight positional gamble from a manager who enjoys pushing the edges of his squad’s versatility.
Maybe it was a one-off. Maybe it was a dress rehearsal.
The experiment suddenly looks loaded with meaning. Zubimendi has already shown, for Spain and for Arsenal, that he reads danger early and tackles with timing rather than desperation. The UEFA clip of him stripping Kvaratskhelia on the touchline is not a guarantee of anything, but it is proof that he understands the angles and the rhythm of defending against that specific kind of winger.
And there is another layer. Zubimendi has recently lost his starting place in midfield. Myles Lewis-Skelly’s resurgence has changed the chemistry of Arsenal’s centre, with the young Englishman thriving alongside Declan Rice. On form, that partnership is hard to break. On merit, it probably shouldn’t be.
So Arteta faces a choice that cuts deeper than a simple tactical tweak. Leave Zubimendi out again, in the biggest game of the season, after the role he has played across the campaign? Or find a way to keep his brain and his experience on the pitch, even if it means redrawing his position?
A decision that will define the night
Arteta is not sentimental, but he is loyal to players who have carried his ideas. Zubimendi has been one of those pillars. Excluding him from the XI in a Champions League final would gnaw away at him, especially when the opponent’s main threat operates in an area the Spaniard has already shown he can police.
If Timber fails to make it, the path opens. Mosquera remains the favourite in many eyes, the conventional solution at a time when the margin for error is microscopic. Timber’s absence from the Palace game last weekend underlines just how tight the timeline is for the Dutchman to be trusted from the start.
Yet the memory of that night in Georgia lingers. The recent trial at Selhurst Park lingers. Arteta has the option to roll the dice with Zubimendi at full-back, to use a midfielder’s brain to solve a winger’s riddle.
One selection at right-back will tell us everything about how bold Arsenal intend to be against PSG – and how far Arteta is willing to go to stop Kvaratskhelia when the lights are at their brightest.
