This was a weekend that noticed West Ham walk-outs, Erling Haaland hammer blows and Mohamed Salah silencers.
However who picked up our Premier League Participant of the Week award?
Let’s discover out …
Martin Zubimendi (Arsenal)
📸 Jack Thomas – 2025 Getty Photographs
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There are occasions when a footballer’s arrival in a brand new league feels immediate, plain, like a single afternoon that redraws expectations.
For Arsenal, Saturday’s victory over Nottingham Forest might come to be remembered because the day Martin Zubimendi launched himself to English soccer with the calm certainty of somebody who belongs on the very prime desk.
The Spaniard had been billed, when he joined for a charge nudging £50m in the summertime, as a metronome fairly than a match-winner. His fame at Actual Sociedad was constructed on intelligence, positioning and understated management.
What unfolded on the Emirates on Saturday was one thing altogether extra emphatic.
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The diminutive midfielder bagged a brace that bookended 90 minutes of authority, turning a routine residence fixture right into a showcase for why Mikel Arteta had been so insistent on bringing him to north London.
His first objective arrived simply previous the half-hour mark, a second that condensed method and nerve into one sweetly struck volley. The ball dropped from the sky and Zubimendi, balanced and warranted, lashed it previous Matz Sels with out hesitation.
It was not a end normally related to holding midfielders, extra the protect of a quantity 10 or a world class striker brimming with confidence. His second, though the diametric reverse, was one other that will normally be discovered within the highlights reel of a striker on the peak of his kind. Zubimendi, ghosting into the field, rose with function and guided his header neatly contained in the publish. Two probabilities, two targets, two very completely different statements.
His putting effectivity on Saturday was good, but the numbers solely inform a part of the story. His cross completion as soon as once more hovered north of 85% and people passes weren’t conservative sideways shuffles. A number of pierced the Forest midfield strains, shifting the sport’s momentum in Arsenal’s favour and guaranteeing that Arteta’s aspect dictated territory and tempo from the outset.
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Nor ought to his defensive contribution be ignored. Forest, energetic of their early matches this season, have been subdued right here, funneled into innocent huge areas every time they tried to advance centrally. Arsenal’s third clear sheet in 4 video games was as a lot about Zubimendi’s self-discipline because it was in regards to the again 4. His positioning repeatedly broke up play earlier than hazard may develop, the form of preventative work that not often finds its manner into spotlight reels however underpins profitable groups.
The broader significance lies in what this implies for Arsenal. Final season, the midfield usually carried an excessive amount of weight on the shoulders of Declan Rice, notably in large video games. Zubimendi provides not simply cowl however complement.
The Roja worldwide is a participant capable of share the load defensively whereas additionally bringing the shock of targets from deep. That mixture feels just like the evolution Arteta’s challenge wanted, the following layer of tactical complexity that may flip contenders into champions.
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Others sparkled elsewhere throughout the Premier League weekend, with decisive late winners and derby doubles. However none provided the identical cocktail of poise, management and leading edge.
For Arsenal followers, it was a efficiency to cherish. For his or her rivals, it was a warning. Zubimendi shouldn’t be right here merely to finish the Arsenal puzzle, he is right here to redefine it.
📸 Jack Thomas – 2025 Getty Photographs