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Is Olsson worthy enough to replace Arteta?

Since joining our club from Everton in 2011, Mikel Arteta has established himself as an important part of our team and at times the true midfield leader that we need. In his first year at our club, he played behind the striker with an attacking minded role but after the departure of Alex Song the season after that, who joined Barcelona, he was asked  to drop deeper in the midfield and to play as the defensive midfielder in pivotal role with another midfielder who mostly played the box-to-box role unlike the defensive one that Arteta plays in.

His first season in the deeper position was more than successful and was one of the best in his position in the Premier League followed my Michael Carrick but now at this stage it seems that his legs are ‘dead’ and that he doesn’t have enough energy or power to needed to play in that position anymore. Arteta can play a very vital role as the squad player and with him getting older his calves will start to cause pain and that might backtrack him at times and with those occasional injuries he won’t be fit all the time to start. We certainly need the defensive midfielder as much as we need the world class striker up front. Arteta’s  brilliant next to Ramsey but fails to deliver when playing alongside Flamini or Wilshere. We need to look for options and we will surely looks for options this summer. Most realistic options this summer will surely be Lars Bender from Leverkusen and Morgan Schneiderlin from Southampton.

Although, if you’re asking me, as a regular youth follower and follower of the development and progress of our youth players, I would easily say that it might be better to look within our Academy as I’d promote two specific players, Hayden and Olsson. I agree that we need  to buy the more mobile and more defensive minded midfielder that’s already proven at the highest level  and the two players that I mentioned [Bender and Schneiderlin] would be perfect but and there’s always that ‘but’ for me, looking within our club’s Academy would easily be the good move to replace Mikel Arteta on the long run. Olsson would gladly and easily be my pick for the Arteta position in our current team. He originally joined our club as the attacking minded or more known as the #10 player but in his second but mostly in his third season at the club he was asked to drop deeper and to adapt to the more physical role in midfield. Coaches at Arsenal have worked very hard with him and helped him improve physically and technically in order to get used to playing in that position. Being the most complete midfielder in our Academy and impressing at every youth level and being consistently good over the years has made him the Arteta-esque he is today.

Very hard worker and never stops training for his own good. Has accepted every critic that came towards him and has used them to get only better. Skillful player with an amazing control of the ball and even better passing, he’d be and he’s certainly the one that we should look for as the long term replacement for Arteta. When he was moved to the deeper role, he was doubted that he would succeed in it but has done much more than it was firstly expected by many. Kris is still very young but my love and support for him is huge and I’ll always be behind him whether he makes it here at Arsenal or not. Kris knows that he needs to raise and step his game up and has admitted that. He needs improvement on the physical part on the game but overall he is phenomenal but currently lacks experience which he will most likely get on loan next season. Olsson’s contract expires in June but he will get a new one as the club are ready to offer him the extension very soon. He has trained with the first team for most part of the season and he enjoyed that as well as the first team players who were impressed by him. Olsson’s best part of his game is his passing but the way he cuts back and covers the space that’s left open by the others is remarkable too. He usually plays next to Hayden or Kamara but sometimes plays next to Zelalem. When he plays next to Hayden or Kamara he has the freedom and opportunity to drive forward but barely does that as he is got that feeling to sit back and to keep good cover of the defense and to help his teammate to control the midfield. The courage to succeed puts him a step ahead of everyone at our Academy. Realistically looking, he is Arteta’s long term [future] replacement but at times he can get outmuscled by others and once he improves the physical aspect of his game he’d be even better and would be brilliant and definitely the complete modern professional midfielder.

My guess and mostly from my point of view, Olsson will spend the upcoming new season on full season long loan to one Championship club while we are most likely going to buy a proven class player and in meantime we will keep developing Olsson which will help him and the club for their midfield options in the future. That would be all on Kris and my views on him replacing Arteta and generally the Arteta role. I can see his future being here and nowhere else. He’s rated highly by Wenger and every Arsenal coach in our club. Olsson’s very close to the first team.  It’s worth to mention that it’s always joyful and enjoyable to watch Kris play and for me he’s one step ahead of every youth players. He’s simply on a higher level than everyone else and as the title says, is Kris Olsson worthy enough to replace Arteta? I can gladly answer with one big YES.

Thank you for reading. I hope you lot enjoyed it.

Thanks to Arsenal’s photographer David Price (@priceyd101) and my great friend Kieran Clarke (@KieranCPhoto) for the beautiful photos of our young star Kristoffer Olsson.

*If you want to know more on our youths or want to share your thoughts and views with me on this specific player or anything else related to the first team and our Academy you can follow me @MAmpov10 and I’d be glad to answer your questions. *

Tell us what you think! If you agree, or have a different view, please leave a comment in the comments section or why not write a response or your own article on YouWrite?

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Tags: Arteta, Arsenal Youth, Defensive Midfielder, Olsson

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