A comfortable win. The first 3 points of the season are in the bag. Our £65 million striker scores his first goal of the season.
Before the game there was a lot of talk about the lack of new strikers at the club. In the pub chats I stuck to my opinion – anyone who comes in has to be better than Kai Havertz and so far no striker has changed clubs that I would have preferred over Germany’s first choice.
When Havertz rose and headed the ball in our opening game, I felt vindicated in my position.
My thought was, if we had signed Dominic Solanke, Ivan Toney, Ollie Watkins or Benjamin Sesko and they had scored that goal, we would all be saying, ‘What a difference a good striker makes.’
Havertz’s goal was a magnificent header. A true striker’s goal. Something Olivier Giroud would have been proud of. And he has the added advantage of having a superior overall game to others who simply score goals.
I understand why some fans reacted a little negatively when they saw the starting eleven. There were no new players, Riccardo Calafiori was on the bench. But that’s the situation with the squad at the moment.
Last season we put Manchester City under pressure to the limit, so there is no need to fix what isn’t broken.
It is always the clubs further down the table that sign a lot of players. The clubs at the top, which have world-class teams, usually do not have a lot of player turnover. And the players that come in have to be better than the players they replace.
Would Dominic Solanke for £65m or Julian Alvarez for £80m be an improvement on Havertz and Gabriel Jesus? I would say no. Calafiori, meanwhile, is an improvement on Jakub Kiwior and Mikel Merino is a better option in central defence than Emile Smith Rowe.
In recent years we have started slowly as new players have had to get used to playing together. The advantage of bringing in so few players was that everyone already knew their role and had the necessary connections.
We have seen Ben White and Bukayo Saka renew their relationship on the right – whoever the new England manager will be, he will have to reconcile with White. We have Oleksandr Zinchenko coming in from the left to create an extra man in midfield. Thomas Parety acts as a single-handed defensive midfielder. Gabriel Martinelli is a taker on the left. It was pretty much the ‘old Arsenal’.
It was interesting to see Zinchenko leave the field after 60 minutes and be replaced by Jurrien Timber rather than Calafiori.
It feels like Calafiori has come in as a ‘Ben White’ on the left and will eventually be our first choice at left-back, but with Timber and Zinchenko we have the opportunity to use more progressive full-backs on both sides.
The substitution was not an indication that Timber is ahead of Calafiori in the pecking order, but rather that different players are used in different situations.
There will be games where we want to put White on the left and either Timber or Zinchenko on the right. And other games where Timber will play on the right and Calafiori will play on the left.
One comment I heard in the stadium that touched me was that Arteta wanted to reduce the players’ playing time.
One criticism of Arteta is that he trusts very few and does not have over-confidence in his team. While this is justified, it is also because some of the squad players (such as Smith Rowe and Nelson) are not good enough.
This season, Timber and White will share playing time on the right, Zinchenko and Calafiori will share playing time on the left. Partey, Merino, Declan Rice and Jorginho will share playing time in those two midfield positions. Leandro Trossard and Martinelli will alternate on the left, and Havertz and Jesus will alternate up front.
Only William Saliba, Gabriel, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard will be in the starting eleven if they are fit.”
In the latter two, you simply don’t give your best players a rest. How often have Lionel Messi, Mo Salah, Cristiano Ronaldo and others been rested or substituted in their prime? The answer is: rarely.
When you have special talents like Odegaard and Saka, you let them play. And the more they play, the better their bodies adapt to the game.
That’s our first win of the season. Now we have a week off until we face Aston Villa next weekend. And before we know it, we’ll be heading into the first international break of the season.
Enjoy your Sunday!
Keeno’s
