Martin Zubimendi Handed Unexpected Route Back into Mikel Arteta’s Graces

The Spanish midfielder began to fall out of favor in the final weeks of last season.

Martín Zubimendi had an opportunity at right back this week. | Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

Martín Zubimendi was barely out of Arsenal’s team last season as the Gunners won the Premier League and reached the Champions League final. But the cultured midfielder is learning the hard way how fickle elite soccer can be, although all is not lost if he is willing to reinvent himself.

Arsenal beat Real Madrid to Zubimendi’s signature last summer, a year after he rejected a transfer to Liverpool. The former Real Sociedad star was an instant hit, starting 45 times across the Premier League and Champions League.

But there were signs by the end of last season that Zubimendi’s place was at risk. He didn’t start the Champions League final, the semifinal second leg or any of Arsenal’s final four Premier League matches in midfield—he appeared as a substitue in three and at right back in the other.

Through four matches in 2026–27, Zubimendi hasn’t started in the Premier League. He came off the bench in the Champions League against Napoli, and Manchester City in the Community Shield. That is largely to do with the resurgence of Myles Lewis-Skelly, who is even successfully keeping summer signing Bruno Guimarães out Arteta’s strongest XI.

Zubimendi had to wait until this week for his first start of the season, stepping in for the injured Ben White at right back against Ipswich Town in the Carabao Cup. Due to the competition in midfield, it now feels like that is his best bet to reclaim a starting place.

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Arsenal’s Strange Right-Back Void

Ben White and Jurriën Timber both used to be center backs. | David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

Jurriën Timber is only just back from his own lengthy injury layoff and was rested against Ipswich. Ezri Konsa and Cristhian Mosquera are both capable right backs, but the latter is also currently sidelined and the former is filling in for the injured William Saliba.

There could be an opportunity for Zubimendi, and Arteta is no stranger to repurposing technically sound Spanish midfielders for other roles, having previously had much success with Mikel Merino as a makeshift striker.

His game at right back on the final day of last season’s Premier League was a career first. Zubimendi had earlier played once as a center back for Real Sociedad in a La Liga mauling by Barcelona in March 2021, but that was his only other senior experience as a defender.

It’s not necessarily an ideal solution for either party, but then Arsenal haven’t had an actual right back play at right back for some time. White and Timber both joined the club, from Brighton & Hove Albion and Ajax respectively, as center backs for their former teams. Takehiro Tomiyasu spent much of his Arsenal career injured and the last demonstrably reliable right back was Héctor Bellerín, who last played more than 30 Premier League games in a season in 2017–18.

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