Who can be in Arsenal’s midfield against Liverpool? Lokonga? and……?

Is Sambi Lakonga ready to step up into the first team while we have a midfielder crisis?

With Xhaka’s ridiculous red card against Liverpool having a two-game ban, Elneny and Partey away playing in the African Cup of Nations, and Maitland-Niles recently left for Roma. We are left with very few options in Midfield.

Is Sambi Lakonga our solution and is he ready to step up in the first team?

The 22-year-old Belgium international transferred to Arsenal in the summer for a reported £18 million from Anderlecht where he came from their youth academy.

Having captained his former team, Sambi clearly has important leadership qualities, something that we will be lacking in the midfield without Xhaka.

Last season we ranked 14^th for progressive passes, and it seems that Arteta signed Sambi to help fix this issue, he was ranked 2^nd in the Belgium league for passes completed per 90 minutes.

We saw a glimpse of this at the start of the season as he gained 13 PL appearances this season (four off the bench), I really enjoyed the way he looked up immediately when playing, driving the team forward.

But I do wonder if he is physical enough to play as a box-to-box midfielder regularly in the prem, especially against the top six and without the stronger Partey to help shield him.

With a big semi-final against Liverpool, I worry he will get outmuscled by Fabinho in the centre of the park.

He only lasted 53 minutes against Klopp’s men earlier this season and was very poor, but did seem to be better against them in last week’s 0-0 draw.

He even admitted himself that he struggled to adapt to the quality of the Premier League and that he does now believe it’s the best league in the world in his latest Arsenal interview.

I also am frustrated at the management of transfers, bearing in mind we have Maitland-Niles (AMN), Guendouzi and Torreira all on loan who would be able to help fill this void.

Yet there has been talk of even Ben White playing as a defensive midfielder in the semi-final second leg.

So, what’s the solution?

Arthur Melo would be a great signing for the club, at only 25, a six-month loan deal could massively help our push for top four and add quality in midfield.

However, it is a tricky transfer as Juventus would need to arrange a replacement, rumoured to be Bruno Guimaraes from Lyon who are known to be difficult in negotiations.

With under two weeks left on the window, time is running out.

We now face Liverpool and Burnley with only Sambi in midfield along with possibly Azeez (recalled from a disappointing loan at Portsmouth) or a very young Patino to play alongside him.

Who would you play in midfield against Liverpool?

Ødegaard? Azeez? White? Patino?

Until next time Gooners,

Benedict