Difficult for you to deduce what this post will look like? You are welcome that's how I like the "first course of this meal" to look like.

For those who may not know him,he is Ben White of the Arsenal,a 25-year-old of English descent. He plays at the right-back position for Arsenal.

Only few days back, it was announced that he has left the England squad to return home.

https://twitter.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1598028690004541445?cxt=HHwWioDUiY-oq60sAAAA
source

Quite frankly the boy won't be missed in England bcause of the plethora of options in right-back for which he was picked.

NOW IT STARTS

What comes to mind? Well,my mind says,Arteta! This is part of some of the mistakes he made as a learner he was then.

How can you send a William Saliba on loan? That's a Saliba some of us watched before that last loan move and it wasn't difficult to see his quality. You send him off, then you spend huge money and buy a centre-back in Ben White, meanwhile the position Arsenal were in dire need of was an able defensive midfielder as back-up for Partey. Arteta inexplicably chased away the sturdy Lucas Torreira and his choice for an assistant to Partey was Sambi Lokonga a 21-year-old, who just joined from Anderlecht of Belgium then.

Lokonga is actually a central midfielder not a defensive one, but an Arteta was willing to convert a boy without Premier League experience for a crucial role(because we knew Partey had fitness issues then). In no distant time injury hit Partey and not surprisingly Lokonga kept misfiring because the young lad just wasn't used to the defensive midfield position, plus he was a newcomer. Arteta stubbornly persisted with the player until he(Arteta) belatedly remembered that there had been a very experienced calm head on the bench,in Mohammed Elneny. He began to field him and stability was restored to the midfield, but the Lokonga era had caused so much damage that Arsenal, who were comfortably in the Champions league zone at the time Partey injured(and Lokonga began), had lost so much ground that they couldn't salvage a Champions league spot by last season's ending.

Meanwhile then there was another young defender in Gabriel Magalhães,24, who joined Arsenal in late 2020. Watching him last season, it is a wonder why he wasn't sent on loan last season instead of Saliba. Today the best centre-back in Arsenal is clearly Saliba. There's a lot Magalhães needs to learn from Saliba, truth be told.

BACK TO IT

Now back to Ben White, he comes in and hey I won't lie,he was a beast of a centre-back, great with the ball on his feet(something Magalhães is still learning now),reading the game and driving up field like a defensive-midfielder would do at times; and the England national team was taking notice and giving him invites to function there. Yet his coming to Arsenal which meant no proper deputy for Partey is one key reason Arsenal is only playing in the Europa Cup this season.

Now Saliba comes back from loan during the summer and his performances on loan(plus his new status as a France international) made it an embarrassing situation for Arteta. A celebrated Christian sage says, "only fools,deny proofs". The proofs of Saliba's brilliance had become staggering that Arteta began looking for where to hide his head from the backlash of his own strange decision on Saliba.
What to do now?

He installed Saliba in the centre-back position to partner Gabriel, then he had to compensate White, moving him to right-back and that was more or less punishing the Japanese guy(Tomiyasu) for nothing. Before then Tomiyasu was such a joy to watch at right-back, excellent any time he plays,especially as he can come infield and play like a midfielder,when the opposition is with the ball– just the way Arteta likes his full-backs to play.

WHITE MAGIC

Good enough,White is so talented that he has been doing his right-back duties with aplomb. However,his England centre-back spot gradually became jeopardised and England already had more than enough right-back's. If James of Chelsea didn't get that injury before the Worldcup, White wouldn't have been anywhere near the World cup tournament. This is a player that was more or less certain to make the World cup before Saliba returned.

WHAT CAN ONE SAY?

Well, the deed has been done and the coach is managing the situation quite well. Ofcourse I am not surprised to hear in the news that the other right-back, Cedric Soares, is seeking to exit in January. He was a very decent deputy to Tomiyasu last season, but I won't blame him for seeking to leave now that the Ben White situation has pushed him further down the pecking order.

Generally though, Arsenal is coping well with this defensive adjustment this season and the Arsenal nation would even be counting White's World Cup exit as a positive...let him come home and rest because the EPL title is in sight. I have said to my fans like @blanchy and @cryptoandcoffee that Arsenal faithfuls should relax and expect success, but it's either they bring up issues of potential injuries or they remember Arsenal buckling in an era way back. Funny guys.😊

Meanwhile, the Gunners are currently off to Dubai for preseason tune-up. It's absolute focus now in the Arsenal camp, they know the title is theirs to loose.

https://twitter.com/TikiTakaConnor/status/1599381233338679297?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
source

Cheers