£30m star must never play for Arsenal again

While there was nothing riding on Sunday afternoon’s game between Arsenal and Southampton, it was still a frustrating match for the Gunners, one that told the story of how this season has gone.

Draws have been Mikel Arteta’s downfall, as have conceding from set-pieces. A draw looked likely until the 90th minute when Martin Odegaard fired home a rare goal, but that defensive ineptitude from set-plays came back to bite them again.

The visitors took the lead through Kieran Tierney but a second-half goal from Ross Stewart at a corner looked as though it has handed the Saints just their 13th point of an arduous campaign.

Truth be told, Southampton deserved to take something from the game for all their endeavour, but in a classic tale of their own season, they couldn’t hold on.

So, what do we discuss from this one? Perhaps we’ll start with a host of farewells for those at Arsenal.

Arsenal’s triumphant send off

It’s safe to say this was not the strongest of lineups from Arteta, who selected the aforementioned Tierney at centre-half, Ethan Nwaneri on the right and Raheem Sterling on the left. Oleksandr Zinchenko even featured at left-back.

The performance of all four of those players was rather mixed, although for Tierney, it was a heroic send off.

The Scot is set to leave the Emirates Stadium behind this summer at the conclusion of his contract and having appeared in front of the home support one last time a week ago, concluded his Arsenal journey with a goal on Sunday.

What he was doing popping up inside the box is anyone’s guess but the defender got across his man and steered the ball home from close range after Ben White had picked him out.

While Tierney enjoyed his final day in Arsenal colours, Sterling certainly did not.

Upon signing for the club, he revealed that we were ‘going to see the best’ of him. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

The winger, on loan from Chelsea, is set to return to his parent club and will do so having failed to score in the Premier League all season.

His performance at St Mary’s summed up his sorry loan spell. The England international had just a solitary shot and didn’t create a key pass before he was subbed off in the 63rd minute.

Elsewhere, it may also have been a final day out in Arsenal colours for Thomas Partey, whose contract expires at the end of the season.

Reports suggest that the club would like to keep him in north London but there has been no breakthrough in contract talks just yet.

Of the rest of the Arsenal starters, it feels likely that it was Zinchenko’s final outing too.

Why Arsenal must get rid of Zinchenko

When the £30m Ukrainian signed for the club in 2022, it marked a bit of a revolution in the Arteta era.

He joined alongside Gabriel Jesus that summer from Manchester City and it looked like the two missing pieces of the jigsaw had been added.

Zinchenko was a fine addition and looked a million dollars playing in that inverted full-back role. However, as voiced by certain sections of the media, he has proven himself to be too much of a “liability” from a defensive point of view.

You can’t criticise the left-back’s technique or touch. That was evident against Southampton when he plucked a high ball out of the sky with remarkable composure, stopping it dead in his feet. He didn’t do a whole lot wrong this weekend, but then again, he also didn’t produce anything too positive against the division’s worst side.

At the technical side of the game, he is outstanding; very few left-backs can do what he does. Sadly for the 28-year-old, his time at the club is likely now going to come to an end.

Back in January, the Ukraine international was attracting interest from Borussia Dortmund but whether their interest is still there, remains to be seen.

Zinchenko would undoubtedly still make for a fine squad player, although with the emergence of Myles Lewis-Skelly and the presence of Riccardo Calafiori, he simply isn’t going to get much game time.

It perhaps said it all on Sunday that without Odegaard starting, Arteta preferred Nwaneri as the more advanced midfielder, rather than Zinchenko, something the manager had tried with relative success in games against PSV Eindhoven and Brentford in the latter stages of the season.

While he did score against PSV, that is now likely to be his last goal in the red and white of Arsenal.

After 91 appearances for the Londoners, it’s time for him to move on.