Kieran Tierney's trajectory tells the story of Arsenal's tactical evolution under Mikel Arteta; Scotland defender Tierney left Arsenal for Real Sociedad this summer on loan; watch Arsenal vs Man Utd live on Sky Sports Premier League on Sunday from 4pm; kick-off 4.3pm
Sunday 3 September 2023 16:28, UK
It all began with a Tesco bag.
It's June 2020 and Arsenal are at Bramall Lane to play Sheffield United in an FA Cup quarter-final. It was to prove a stern test for the visitors, who required a stoppage-time winner from Dani Ceballos to secure their passage to the semi-final.
Kieran Tierney was adjudged the player of the match but it was his showing off the pitch that turned heads.
Ahead of the game, Tierney had been pictured entering the stadium accessorised by nothing but a Tesco carrier bag. In an era where we've grown accustomed to players sporting designer handbags, it was a startling sight and immediately lapped up by Arsenal supporters.
The quarter-final was only his 15th appearance for the Gunners but that summer afternoon in Sheffield gave him cult status among the fanbase.
His starring role in Arsenal's triumphant FA Cup campaign that year, which included the assist for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's winner in the semi-final against Manchester City, cemented his role as a fan favourite.
Over the next two years, the Scottish left-back grew to become the emotional centre of the Arsenal project. For manager Mikel Arteta, he embodied the commitment he sought from his players as he set about revamping the culture in the club. His ability to follow instructions made him the perfect on-field conduit for the manger.
He was a key member of Arsenal's leadership group and when Aubameyang was shown the door in January 2022, Tierney emerged as a leading candidate for club captain. At Villa Park in March that year, Tierney wore the armband for the first time in the Premier League after Alexandre Lacazette, who was appointed as temporary captain until the end of the season, was subbed at half-time.
That afternoon would prove to be the pinnacle of Tierney's Arsenal career.
A knee injury that would require surgery ruled him out for the rest of the 2021/2022 campaign. A couple of weeks after he returned to action in July, Oleksandr Zinchenko arrived at the club. Once the protagonist, Tierney found himself shunted to the periphery. Despite the Ukranian's travails with injury through the previous season, Tierney wasn't able to work himself into first-team contention.
He made 27 Premier League starts in the 2020/2021 season and 22 in 2021/22. But last year, he made just six. The fall from grace was sharp and it wasn't surprising when earlier this week, he signed terms with Real Sociedad for a one-year loan deal.
In many ways, Tierney's trajectory tells the story of Arsenal's tactical evolution over the past year. Arteta has moved away from the defensive three-man backline that marked his early years at the club and adopted a more fluid, front-footed approach.
An overlapping left-back marauding down the touchline to pump crosses into the box is redundant in the set-up. Zinchenko's ability to seamlessly step up into midfield and contribute towards the build-up makes him invaluable to the system. Some would argue he is the system.
That Tierney looked an unnatural fit in the current set-up had as much to do with his passing as it did with his rigid movement. His pass completion rate didn't go above 77.3% in his four seasons in the Premier League. Contrast this with Zinchenko, whose pass completion rate hasn't fallen below 86.4% in his six full seasons in the league.
Despite his demotion in the pecking order, Tierney was never found lacking in attitude or application and it's worth noting that his exit was down entirely to tactical reasons. He was just the collateral damage in the transition of Arsenal's approach from guts to guile.
He isn't the first player to be on the receiving end of Arteta's ruthless streak. Mesut Ozil, Emiliano Martinez, Bernd Leno and Aubameyang have all suffered the same fate. While Arsenal's proactivity in fine-tuning their squad is admirable, their inability to generate funds for those surplus to requirement has begun to feel more of a trait than a trend.
Consider the fact that since 2019, the £122.5m Arsenal have received in player sales is the lowest among the top six in the Premier League.
The sale of Bernd Leno last summer provides an example of their struggles in this department. The German goalkeeper was signed from Bayer Leverkusen in 2018 for a fee that was reported to be £22.5m. He went to make 125 appearances for the club yet Arsenal managed to sell him for a meagre £8m to Fulham last summer.
Contrast with Liverpool, who sold Danny Ward for £12.5m to Leicester in 2018 on the back of just three first-team appearances.
That same summer, Marseille struck a similar bargain with Arsenal when they signed Matteo Guendouzi for just £10m. While on loan at Marseille the previous season, the midfielder had played a key role in helping them secure Champions League qualification. In 2021, he made his first senior appearance for France and went on to nail down a spot in Didier Deschamps' World Cup squad, where he even started their final group game against Tunisia.
Equally concerning for the Arsenal hierarchy will be the fact that contract termination has emerged as a popular exit route among the players no longer part of the manager's plans. From Willian to Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Shkodran Mustafi, the Gunners have paid out the contracts of eight players since 2019.
While Arsenal's upward trajectory has made it easier to get players through their doors, making space for them has proved to be a challenge. At the time of writing, Arsenal have a bloated 31-man squad with solutions yet to be found for Albert Sambi Lokonga, Cedric Soares and Nicolas Pepe. Nuno Tavares, who spent last season on loan at Marseille, is edging closer to a loan move to Nottingham Forest while Luton have expressed an interest in signing Rob Holding.
Folarin Balogun has proved to be the exception in Arsenal's poor selling record, Monaco paying £34m for the 22-year-old academy product.
As Arteta continues to plot Arsenal's path to the top, there will undoubtedly be more culling of players adroit and adored, in the way Balogun and Tierney are respectively. Receiving healthy fees for such players would cushion the blow of their departures.
