{"id":1462,"date":"2026-05-25T11:59:48","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2026-05-25T11:59:48","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T11:59:48","slug":"zubimendi-a-champion-almost-never-seen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/?p=1462","title":{"rendered":"Zubimendi, a champion (almost) never seen"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p data-mrf-recirculation=\"Links P\u00e1rrafos\" class=\"ue-c-article__paragraph paragraph ue-c-article--first-letter-highlighted\">M<strong>art\u00edn Zubimendi (San Sebasti\u00e1n, 1999) is in luck<\/strong>. Doubly. It comes from helping <strong>Arsenal<\/strong> to &#8216;crown&#8217; <strong>Premier champion 22 years later<\/strong> and is among the <strong>26 called up<\/strong> of <strong>Spain<\/strong> for him <strong>World<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p data-mrf-recirculation=\"Links P\u00e1rrafos\" class=\"ue-c-article__paragraph paragraph\">He could make a &#8216;treble&#8217;. And on Saturday he will face the <strong>Paris Saint-Germain<\/strong> with the <strong>Champions League<\/strong> at stake. The ex of the <strong>Royal Society<\/strong>signed by <strong>70 million euros<\/strong> last summer, can boast of being u<strong>n champion (almost) never seen. <\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"ue-c-article__media ue-c-article__media--video  video-player\"><figcaption class=\"ue-c-article__media-caption\" itemprop=\"description\">\n<p><span class=\"ue-c-article__media-description\">Arsenal fans cover George Michael&#8217;s &#8216;Last Christmas&#8217; with Zubimendi as the protagonist<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p data-mrf-recirculation=\"Links P\u00e1rrafos\" class=\"ue-c-article__paragraph paragraph\">&#8220;It is the <strong>second debutant<\/strong> what <strong>wins the Premier<\/strong> having <strong>played every game. <\/strong>Previously <strong>only Jens Lehamnn had achieved it <\/strong>in the<strong> 2003-04&#8243;,<\/strong> assures<strong> &#8216;Opta Joe&#8217;.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-mrf-recirculation=\"Links P\u00e1rrafos\" class=\"ue-c-article__paragraph paragraph\">And it is that<strong> Zubimendi <\/strong>has been a <strong>basic pillar<\/strong> to <strong>Mikel Arteta<\/strong>&#8230;despite having been <strong>substitute in four of the last five games<\/strong> who have disputed the <strong>&#8216;gunners&#8217;<\/strong>. He closed the <strong>Premier,<\/strong> curiously, exercising <strong>improvised right back<\/strong> in the victory against Crystal Palace (1-2). <\/p>\n<p data-mrf-recirculation=\"Links P\u00e1rrafos\" class=\"ue-c-article__paragraph paragraph\">He complied with note. It was the <strong>second<\/strong> Arsenal player who m<strong>more passes he completed successfully (55 of 67),<\/strong> he <strong>third<\/strong> what else <strong>clearances made (3),<\/strong> he <strong>sixth<\/strong> con <strong>more recoveries (3)<\/strong> and the <strong>seventh <\/strong>what else <strong>duels won (2).<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure class=\"ue-c-article__media ue-c-article__media--video  video-player\"><figcaption class=\"ue-c-article__media-caption\" itemprop=\"description\">\n<p><span class=\"ue-c-article__media-description\">The Premier already knows the name of Zubimendi<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p data-mrf-recirculation=\"Links P\u00e1rrafos\" class=\"ue-c-article__paragraph paragraph\"><strong>His load of minutes (4,269&#8242;) is said by someone else<\/strong>. It is the <strong>third player<\/strong> most used by Arteta. <strong>Only Declan Rice (4,336&#8242;) and David Raya (4,500&#8242;) have played more<\/strong>. At the level of matches played (<strong>56, eight as a substitute<\/strong>) no one surpasses him. <strong>One step below are Viktor Gy\u00f6keres and Declan Rice (54). <\/strong><\/p>\n<p data-mrf-recirculation=\"Links P\u00e1rrafos\" class=\"ue-c-article__paragraph paragraph\">The former of the <strong>Royal Society <\/strong>has completed the season <strong>highest scorer of his career<\/strong>. Addition <strong>six goals<\/strong> and has also distributed <strong>three assists<\/strong>. <\/p>\n<p data-mrf-recirculation=\"Links P\u00e1rrafos\" class=\"ue-c-article__paragraph paragraph\">Closes the season with another curious record. According to <strong>Harvey Downes,<\/strong><strong>Zubimendi has replaced Pat Jennings <\/strong>as the player who has played the most games <strong>(56 vs. 55)<\/strong> has disputed in his <strong>first season<\/strong><strong>as an Arsenal player<\/strong>. <strong>A record held by the former Northern Irish international since 1977-78<\/strong>. And <strong>&#8216;marathon&#8217;<\/strong> to which <strong>Zubimendi<\/strong> wait to put the brooch <strong>winning the Champions <\/strong>in your party <strong>number 57.  <\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mart\u00edn Zubimendi (San Sebasti\u00e1n, 1999) is in luck. Doubly. It comes from helping Arsenal to<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1463,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/razak.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}