Rodri out of Man City games till mid September.

Hopefully Sesko isn’t up to speed to feature for Utd or off the pace if he does. Plus the rumoured keeper and defensive signings come in too late. Rodri out for the City game. Glimmers of hope in a rough opening set of fixtures.

Just need Liverpool to somehow be more undercooked than us. At Anfield… in game week 3… well no one can stop me from hoping!

Colwill out for the season, 8 other players in Chelsea’s first team available to play CB but Maresca is saying he needs another CB and wants the club to sign one

Gyökeres with the most encouraging headed goal you’ll ever see! Good cross and managed to keep all the power on it and past the keeper.

Gyökeres first goal for Arsenal, bullet header from (I think) a first time Zubimendi cross. Got across his man and got the header in wonderfully

2-0 now
Saka

And Saka that’s two!! from a counter (of sorts) no less!!

I do wonder if we’re the same person sometimes Rich

Martinelli with the assist for Saka and looks to have got some zip in his game after that. His form has been awful and his ceiling perhaps isn’t as high as we hoped, but I do think there is some ‘unlocking’ that’s possible for Gabby

Zubimendi is just a very very good footballer. I think we’re going to enjoy watching him this season. Always making the right pass, a tempo controller, passes are played with purpose, and he is not afraid to clip a longer pass. He’s quickly going to become the heartbeat of our team.

Yay! Here we go!

I feel that if he got a couple of goals he could spark and find form. And that left side should be better this term. He's not a classic winger and needs to be at the business end of things.

3-0 Havertz. A transition goal.
We clear it, Saka picks up the loose ball midway in our half and Havertz is already on the run, Saka lifts it first time in to the space and Havertz showed good pace to run from half way, hold off the defender and finish low in the far corner.

That extra muscle Havertz put on over the summer helped him there.

We needed Gyökeres but we don’t need him to score 25 goals in a season. Havertz is still good for 15, Saka as well. Gyökeres will probably be criticised for only scoring 15 but if he and those other two did you’re well over halfway to the total goals you’d need for the title.

in about the 85th minute Zubimendi wins the ball back and immediately launches it and Saka is clean through about 40 yards out. If you squint you could have mistaken it for liverpool playing it early to Salah. It's one that Salah would have scored or at least got a shot one one with the keeper. Saka didn't have the pace to accelerate away from the defender and miscontrolled the ball in the end. It was almost so good but Saka isn't great on those ones where he's away and the chance is just him.

I wonder if there's any more pace to come from his hamstring recovery because that's the major difference between him and Salah in that kind of chance. Saka usually picks a great final ball and Gyökeres wasn't on at that point and I reckon he's busting a gut to get up if he's on.

Zubimendi was my man of the match. Noticeable how often he dropped very deep between the CB, very calm on the ball and should help us in the deep build up.
It felt like Rice was playing a bit deeper and almost taking it in turns to go forward and sit with Zubimendi.

Saka looks sharp, nice cameo from Madueke. Gyökeres movement and hold up play good, much more involved today than v Villarreal.

We really needed that confidence boosting win before next week

A certain winger who you’ll never guess ahead of him on all counts.

How did the penalties go, did Noni score his.

All I know is Zubimendi scored the winning one.

Nwaneri missed his - over the bar
Zubimendi scored the winner, Saliba, Madueke, Havertz, Merino, Saka all scored

Must be Yamal in 1st place right?

On the pace issue. Saka and Martinelli seem to have lost half a yard of pace. I remember reading that Havertz was one of the fastest players in the Bundesliga a few years back. I wonder how much the lack of sprinting pace in our forwards is because they are being asked to do so much work?

Real pace and technique are rare in one player and although it’s not a conscious choice I think Arteta would always go for technical security over pace and we’ve ended up with a squad without any flyers. He himself wasn’t blessed with pace but was technically secure.

Saka has never been electric over longer distances as far as I can remember. I’d go as far as to call him slow over 30-40m at this level. But i can think of some really fast players who would be less than useful against massed defences. Part of what made Thierry so devastating I guess.

Did you see Declan today with the intercepted corner where he ran what looked like a 6 second 60m to recover possession. It was seriously impressive and demonstrated exactly what I was trying to explain to that antipodean buffoon the other day. As much desire and grit as athleticism. Love that guy.

He’s an incredible insurance for slightly riskier attacking football. City had Kyle walker doing the same thing in a slightly different way but the same basic idea.

Correcto. He had about 2000 more minutes that Nwaneri last season though!

Antipodean buffoon. Love that. I might adopt that as a moniker unless you’ve copyrighted it. I remain of the view that quick breaks and a midfield who can move fast and play killer passes are required if we are to win the EPL. Well it all starts next week so let’s see what we have learnt from previous seasons.

Happy as a sandboy ; nice 3-0 win and last night my team in the Aussie rugby league the Sydney Roosters absolutely obliterated the Gold Coast Dolphins 64 -12 .

Super pleased for Gyökeres ; although it was early days I thought as time that passes ; if he doesn't score, those anal in bred opposition Pommie fans ; of which there are plenty ; will get on his case big time .

Someone would come up with something derogatory to tune of say " Sweet Caroline " Oh Gyökeres ..... da dit da da ...what a f**&& failure .
He takes up such good positions something that has been lacking ; the brief glimpses of Modueke encouraging seems to be a calculated " have a look first" crosser rather than the headless chicken type head down give it a heave and hope for the best
type .
Pleased also for Havertz ; with maybe his place in jeopardy ; nice goal under a lot of pressure from the defender .

Only watched the highlights but it looks like it has been realised that to get the best from Victor the tempo needs to be speeded up ...?

Another super plus on Gyökeres as far as I am concerned and the Geriatic Brigade ........he looks the part

Nice clean cut ..... no dyed hair , half a kilo of ear rings , bone through his nose , gold chains , diamond stud through the tongue , two acres of tattoos

... sort of dude you'd be more than happy to have your daughter arrive home and say " Hi Dad this is Victor "

Gyökeres getting his goal was crucial. Helps with his confidence going into the United match. Would have worked against him very badly if he missed all his scoring chances today. Go Gyökeres!

Havertz's goal is a beauty to watch. Now teams know they have more than 1 player to look out for. Time for ASrteta to capitalise on the strengths of his newly developed team.

I also only watched an extended highlights package, but it did look promising. The starting 11 was pretty much the first 11 and it looks like we are hitting our stride just at the right time.

Perhaps the quicker play had a lot to do with Zubimendi, and that fact that there was good movement ahead of him. Not just Gyökeres, who looks a handful. People criticise Martinelli but his runs into space are very good.

Havertz' goal was a beaut, wasn't it? So we had two classic, no nonsense, centre forward goals that Haaland would have been proud of, in one game, from two different centre forwards. Very un-Arsenal!

The defending looked a bit ropey at times. Left back is a slight worry. Neither MLS nor Calafiori looks quite natural there.

Indeed Brother Decaf ..... your points on Havertz and Gyökeres ; it fluttered through my pea brain the idea ; leave out Martinelli if he is proving ineffective and go with Victor and Kai together ... sort of double pronged attack we used with Stapleton and McDonald ..? Might surprise the opposition .

I'm all for coaches springing a surprise like George Graham with the three centre backs v Liverpool 89 when everyone and his dog would have thrown in more attackers

On the left back issue ; I got rid of Sky so have no idea whether you are on the money but maybe shift Timber across would be a way to solve the dilemma we face getting Timber and White into the line up

That that's ok because White and Timber are better defensively, so we might want to do that. But having a right footer on the left FB position isn't ideal, particularly offensively. Calafiori and MLS add quite a lot, particularly if we are trying to break down stubborn defenses, so Arteta will be figuring out how to use them and how Rice and Zubimendi will need to back them up.

G/A over the last 3 seasons:

Salah - 142
Vini Jr. - 118
Raphinha - 104
Saka - 90
Dembélé - 88
Leão - 85
Foden - 83
Rodrygo - 81
Palmer - 76
Kvaratskhelia - 75

Saka missed half a season as well. Palmer’s stats are only really 2 seasons worth of playing as well

One big reason we looked so much better yesterday was the quicker passes to our front line. It was a clear tactic to play longer diagonal balls to Saka in particular, it got him in 1v1 positions more regularly. Zubimendi was chief in doing this. I still think he’ll be our signing of the summer. The other thing I noticed with Zubimendi is if he’s on the ball and most of his easier passing lanes are blocked he’ll just drive forward with the ball, sometimes just 15 yards or so but it opens up passing lanes as players have to react and go to him. Players that dribble the ball in central areas are so key to pulling a well drilled team out of shape

I also noticed Rice not as high as he has been, more of a staggered 2 with Zubimendi which meant Calafiori pushed much higher with real license to attack.

Calafiori and Martinelli feels like a better combination on the left. Calafiori a bit more on the overlap so Martinelli can make inside runs. Then Madueke and MLS feel like a good fit, MLS doesn’t overlap he inverts but then Madueke on his natural left side goes on the outside. Getting the balance of those partnerships right will be key for the left side.

Would you Adam and Eve it, no sooner have we bought a new no.9 than Havertz turns into prime Haaland.

Where did that burst of pace come from, unless the Athletic boys were running in treacle.

Athletic Club are decent opposition too. 4th in the league and CL this year.

Hi Rich,

The tempo was much much better.

Zubimendi is quick in his decision-making and, as you point out, does not settle for the backward pass if he can make a progressive pass or drive forwards with the ball.

Calafiori is an immensely talented player who adds so much to our attacking game. He's a bit injury prone and his lack of recovery pace as a LB is also a bit of an issue at times but he adds a different dynamic to our play.

Not sure MLS is much better defensively though.

Fresh legs. I read somewhere that after an hour of football, top sprint speeds drop by 5-10%. And the way we play, our forwards aren't exactly getting a lot of rest. It also accumulates if you don't have enough rest time between games. Havertz had a lot of miles in his legs last season.

That is one of the key benefits of having really credible CF and wing options on the bench. Teams are a little less keen to change central defenders so we need to maximise that advantage in the last 20 minutes of games.

Not to mention reducing the risk of injury ...

I can't wait for Sunday!

How good was Saka by the way, back to his best and benefitting from a bit of extra freedom.

This is the key - having that bit of depth so we can be rotating a bit more - meaning the likes of Saka/Martinelli/Rice/Gabriel/Saliba etc don't have to play 50 + games

If we can rotate and avoid major injuries then keeping these players fresher will be vital

Calafiori is a better defender than MLS. Far far better in the air. Very strong in the tackle. Very good reader of the game. He's a natural defender. He just happens to be comfortable on the ball. MLS has him for pace. That's it. In fairness, MLS is a midfielder.

Good. Rice is very very good at being a defensive midfielder and should avoid the temptation to push further forward. We are stronger with him patrolling in the middle.