‘There is no one like him’: what Zubimendi brings to Arsenal

Midfielder has shown with Real Sociedad and Spain that he combines calm and control with a capacity to tackle

CONTROL: Arsenal's Martin Zubimendi beats Bruno Fernandes to the ball in his Premier League debut for the Gunners last Sunday at Old Trafford. Pic: Stu Forster/Getty Images

THE way Martín Zubimendi remembers it, the day he was given the chance to be a ballboy for Real Sociedad against Manchester United, he was more nervous than when he had to play. Standing at the side of the pitch, he found himself transfixed, the game flying by. So transfixed, in fact, that he forgot it was his job to pass the ball to the players and at one point Claudio Bravo, in goal that night at Anoeta, had to come over and take it off him because he was standing there watching. It was the first time it had happened to him; it would also be the last.

If there is anything that defines Arsenal’s second Basque midfielder, it is that he is so calm, so in control. “He oozes assuredness from every pore,” says the Spain coach, Luis de la Fuente. “He doesn’t get nervous walking a tightrope with no safety net.”