Riccardo Calafiori returns to Italy with Arsenal this week - and he's a very different player compared to the one who departed for England two years ago. When Arsenal came in for Calafiori, he was regularly playing at centre-back at Bologna. Those who guided his career had doubts about whether he could reach the highest level as a left-back. But now, Calafiori is not just thriving as a left-back for the Premier League champions. "He's the best left-back in the league by far," says Jamie Carragher. As well as being part of an imperious Arsenal defence, the Italian has started this season on fire in front of goal, scoring in the Community Shield win over Manchester City and getting assists in the league victories over Coventry and Aston Villa. VAR spotting an offside Ezri Konsa denied Calafiori getting on the scoresheet against Chelsea, but the Italian did have a crucial role in Arsenal's winning goal, scored by Martin Odegaard. In the build-up, Calafiori's run inside of Christos Tzolis helped drag Pedro Neto into a back five - putting more Chelsea players behind the ball and rubberstamping Arsenal's dominance on the game. "He dictated the formation of Chelsea," said Carragher, analysing the goal on Sky Sports. "Wherever Calafiori was, Neto was. When Calafiori drops forward, Neto drops into make a back five."

"Chelsea were flittering between a back four in the main and a back five. It's all about the positioning of Calafiori." But that was not all. Calafiori kept going. His run into the penalty area then dragged centre-back Maxence Lacroix with him and created a 14.4-yard gap between the Chelsea defender and his partner Wesley Fofana. That was all the space Arsenal needed for Kai Havertz to dummy the ball to Odegaard, who finished with ease. But again, that's not all. Because we've seen that exact same move from Arsenal before. Arsenal's third goal in the Community Shield win over City had the same characteristics. A run and ball in from Tzolis, a dummy from Havertz - and Odegaard comfortably scoring. But crucially, it had the same underlapping run made by Calafiori - which created the same large centre-back gap between Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol. "You see the space between the centre-backs, that comes from Calafiori," added Carragher. "This is the impact he's..."