It\u2019s seven wins from seven for Mikel Arteta\u2019s<\/a> side in the league phase of the Champions League<\/a>, booking an express ticket to the round of 16, dodging the play-offs. <\/p>\n The stellar night at San Siro was packed with positives; however, one player couldn\u2019t avoid criticism from Arsenal<\/a> fans. <\/p>\n It\u2019s time to vote for Arsenal\u2019s Man of the Match against Inter Milan \ud83d\udd25 <\/p>\n \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n Arsenal fans didn\u2019t like Martin Zubimendi\u2019s performance against Inter Milan <\/p>\n Gabriel Jesus dazzled against Inter Milan<\/a> at the top end of the performance spectrum, and at the other end was Martin Zubimendi<\/a>. <\/p>\n Arteta rotated his squad to face Inter, which included benching Declan Rice, which clearly impacted Zubimendi\u2019s evening. <\/p>\n On X, Arsenal fans were in total agreement when analysing Zubimendi\u2019s display, and it wasn\u2019t pretty. <\/p>\n \u201cZubimendi shocking so far,\u201d one X user posted mid-game. <\/p>\n Rate Martin Zubimendi\u2019s performance against Inter Milan out of 10 <\/p>\n Explain your answer!<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n They weren\u2019t alone in their assessment: \u201cZubimendi is having a nightmare out there. Hiding from the ball and giving away the ball far too easily.\u201d<\/p>\n Another fan wrote, \u201cMy only issue is Zubimendi is really struggling in transition, and he looks tired.\u201d<\/p>\n Fans hit boiling point when Zubimendi\u2019s sluggish actions in midfield led to Inter scoring a first-half equaliser. <\/p>\n \u201cInter drove through the centre easily for their goal because Zubimendi out of possession is a complete liability, especially when Rice isn\u2019t there to do the job of two.\u201d<\/p>\n A fellow Gooner agreed, \u201cZubimendi is responsible for that Inter goal going in, how do you block a shot like that, does he not see how Gabriel block shots?!\u201d<\/p>\n It was a poor night by the Spaniard\u2019s standards, given that Zubimendi has been Arsenal\u2019s signing of the summer. <\/p>\n Still, that didn\u2019t excuse his performance at San Siro, which one fan dubbed, \u2018so bad\u2019.<\/p>\n Changes will happen in Arsenal\u2019s midfield because of Inter Milan win<\/p>\n Zubimendi was far from his best against Inter, particularly before Rice was introduced. <\/p>\n The 26-year-old will have to get used to not having the Englishman alongside him, as in Arsenal\u2019s next Champions League match, Rice is suspended, as is Mikel Merino. <\/p>\n Who do you want to see in midfield to face Kairat Almaty? <\/p>\n \ud83d\udc47 Join the debate; share your insight. Use the comment button on the bottom left to have your say <\/p>\n Rice and Merino were booked against Inter, subsequently ruling them out of the final league phase match against Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan. <\/p>\n It\u2019s not the end of the world, as with all due respect to Kairat, Arteta would\u2019ve almost definitely rotated the duo anyway. <\/p>\n One thing\u2019s for sure, though, and that\u2019s that Zubimendi will be eager to up his game next time out. <\/p>\n Join Our Newsletter <\/p>\n Receive a digest of our best Arsenal content each week direct to your mailbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arsenal recorded a long-overdue Champions League win in Italy with a 3-1 victory over Inter Milan. Manuel Akanji…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420142,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[10535,51616,403,99],"class_list":["post-420141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-champions-league","tag-martin-zubimendi","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420142"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"FC](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2256759396-1024x683.jpg\")
Photo by Tiziano Ballabio\/NurPhoto via Getty Images <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AI-2026-01-20T222805.338-819x1024.png\")
Credit: Getty Images\/Alessio Morgese\/NurPhoto <\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AI-2026-01-20T222523.532-819x1024.png\")
Credit: Getty Images\/Marco Luzzani <\/p>\n