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As Arsenal’s season was careening off the rails on Friday night, it didn’t surprise AC Milan legend and former Ukrainian national team manager Andriy Shevchenko that it was Oleksandr Zinchenko who brought his faltering team mates together. Theo Walcott had struck inside 14 minutes to send Southampton 2-0 up against his former club, who seemed bound to fritter away the Premier League title in the most humiliating of fashions.
After all, in 2021 the then-Ukraine manager made Zinchenko the youngest captain in his country’s football history for a crucial World Cup qualifier away to France. The first words Shevchenko uses to describe his compatriot? “Charisma, determination, responsibility.” It was a veteran Ukraine squad too. The side that drew at the Stade de France in a World Cup qualifier included the near 30 year old Serhiy Sydorchuk and experienced midfielder Ruslan Malinovskyi, but it was Zinchenko who took the armband. “He has the passion [of a captain].
“He’s a leader. To make him the youngest captain, I did it because he deserved it. The players wanted to see it. He leads by example.”
Even from the stands, Zinchenko’s message for his teammates on Friday was blindingly obvious. Calm down, the Ukraine international insisted, taking the lead ahead of club captain Martin Odegaard. The eyes of the sport were transfixed on Zinchenko, let alone those of a quelled Emirates Stadium. Even before the final whistle, it was being framed as a pivot point for the title charge. “If Arsenal go on and win this game it’ll be shown everywhere as great leadership,” CBS Sports analyst Jamie Carragher said on Sky Sports’ coverage. They did not go on to win the game, the 3-3 draw a potentially mortal blow in their battle with Manchester City, which sees Zinchenko return to his former home on Wednesday night for the biggest game of the season. They did, however, do what their left back asked of them in the minutes that followed, playing with something more like the authority, composure and precision that had got them to the top of the table in the first place.
That Zinchenko has proven himself to be such a fine footballer, arguably the best inverted full back currently operating in the global game, seems natural to Shevchenko, who saw precocious talent in the youngster from the Shakhtar Donetsk academy when he trained with the Ukrainian national team at an early age.
“He’s so light on the ball, very good technique and he was not afraid to take responsibility when he was playing even when he first started. You could see immediately that he had a different, natural quality to anybody else: technique, movement and confidence.”
His leadership qualities might have been harder for the then-assistant manager to identify. “I remember him coming to the national team, he was a boy of 16. He looked like a baby!
“He has developed and grown so much, the captain of the Ukrainian national team, one of the best left backs this season. He deserves all of this for his passion for football, his discipline, his desire and ambition.”
Those attributes have been on full display for Arsenal. There are first team players who might acknowledge that they did not believe this title tilt was on until Zinchenko arrived from Manchester City in the summer and told them that first place should be their aspiration. His ability to step into midfield from left back has been perhaps the most decisive aspect of the control Arsenal have exhibited in matches this season. No team tilts the field more in their favor than the Gunners this season, no wonder when they have a left back who completes 23.4 passes in the final third per 90 minutes, nearly three more than anyone else in the division.
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“It’s his natural quality, he’s very smart and can cover different positions in the pitch,” says Shevchenko. “He can play left back, come in the middle. We saw him do it many times at Manchester City, he’s been doing the same stuff for Arsenal too. It’s a natural quality, he’s very good technically, he’s very smart. And the way he moves, he always finds the right position to circulate the ball. It’s very, very, very nice to see.
“He knows he can cover so many roles. He can change during the game quite easily. The structure of Arsenal games is very clear, every player knows his position and when you win or lose the ball, Alex works so quickly because he’s an intelligent player.”
Zinchenko’s front-footed approach to his role has its limitations. Those have been on increasingly frequent display in recent weeks. Even aside from their third goal, Southampton made great hay through rapid transitions into the spots that Zinchenko vacated down the left. A fortnight earlier was crestfallen when he made his way to the Anfield substitutes’ bench moments after being nutmegged by Trent Alexander-Arnold, who crossed for Roberto Firmino to earn Liverpool their equaliser in the first of Arsenal’s three draws.
That moment of utter devastation cast a spotlight just how important this particular season is for Zinchenko. It is not just that this year the four-time English champion could win the league with his boyhood club Arsenal. It isn’t even the chance to be the star of a team, to forge a title winner rather than just play a supporting role in the Pep Guardiola ensemble. That’s just what’s at stake on the field.
The 14 months since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine have been unimaginably trying for Zinchenko, one of the most high profile Ukrainians on the global stage. As he noted last month, he needs “to carry on, to represent my country as well as I can, just to make Ukrainian people sometimes smile”.
In his on-field performances this season, his compatriot Shevchenko sees a man “playing for his country.” The admiration he feels for Zinchenko shines through. “He’s been using every opportunity to remind everyone about the war. He raises attention. He speaks so well. He created his foundation, through which we’ve been supporting many different projects in Ukraine. You have to be very proud of what he’s done and what he’s doing.”
In such circumstances a Premier League title might seem like a trifling concern. Try telling that to the man who was rallying his teammates to ensure their season did not slip away on Friday night. Zinchenko would not let top spot slip through Arsenal’s grasp then. He surely won’t on Wednesday night. Win, lose or draw, Zinchenko has become one of Arsenal’s most important leaders, a role that’s likely to persist over the weeks, months and years to come.