Firepower can mean someone who can operate centrally too. As everyone knows, I’ve long had doubts Jesus and Nketiah is enough for what could be sixty games or more if we progress in the Europa League as well as the domestic cups.

The ideal scenario looks a mobile attacking player who can operate centrally and wider.

The interesting thing is after a number of years of City and Liverpool dominance combined with Man U being thoroughly unlikeable and arrogant and Chelsea being quite dull you’d think that this young vibrant Arsenal team lead by a charismatic young manager would become the media darlings in a push to upset the established elite. I can guarantee it won’t be that way though!

As we discussed recently, every game is a potential banana skin. Like Hazuki I think Bournemouth are the nearest thing the Premier League has this season to a guaranteed bottom three spot. But on their day they could grab a point off much better teams.

All we can do is beat the team we’re playing, however good or bad they are. So far we’ve done that. The next two games are Fulham and Villa, both at home. Anything other than six points will be disappointing, however decently Fulham have started.

Then comes Manchester United away. However badly they’ve started a win at Old Trafford will be massive. I think it’s a game when a Manchester United win, an Arsenal win and a draw are all as likely as each other. We may have better players and a more coordinated style of play but that’s no guarantee of winning any one off game.

Is this what Arteta meant when he said the project will go Bang soon?

Fair play to the Arsenal fans who have stuck with the process. For me I was behind Arteta at the start for at least trying to do the things I wanted. Take off the ball work seriously, install discipline in the side etc. the recruitment side was going to take longer but you could see in fits and starts that those players that got it we’re putting in some good performances, and that whilst Arteta was learning the path that he was on and the way he wanted the team to play was absolutely right and , maybe it puts it too simplistically but he just needed better players.

Evening socrates. I think that’s a fair point. He looked dodgy in the second half of last season and was well dodgy today. He also let Maddison’s shot in at the near post against Leicester.

Dare I say it his distribution has gone slightly to pot as well. He was well lucky to get away with a poor kick out against Leicester and his pinpoint Neuer type distribution has disappeared. Hopefully temporarily.

But half a season doesn’t make a great keeper. Ramsdale has to get back to his first half a season form at Arsenal to cement his reputation as a great keeper. The best three keepers I’ve seen at Arsenal are Seaman, Jennings and Lehman (Jennings doesn’t come top because he had his absolute peak at Tottenham, the same reason I see Sansom as Arsenal’s best left back because while Cole was arguably better, his best was at Chelsea).

Many fans were demanding his dismissal. Bloke was slagged off for not picking Özil, then for his treatment of aubameyang and much more. Players that would have got us nowhere. The grief he got for signing white and Ramsdale was absurd. He won’t get apologies but there was a huge element of complacency at the club he’s eradicated.

I remember back in December people on here were saying arteta needed to be sacked and he had no “attacking philosophy”.

Utter garbage and when challenged they would resort to abuse. Absurd. Looking forward to next week now

Thank God
Ajax rebutted all our bids.
If they hadn't we would have Martinez and not Zinchenko.
I know who I prefer.
The funny thing is early in the window we were linked to Zinchenko then it went cold and we showed the interest in Martinez.
Zinchenko is technically brilliant and such a good footballer. Great attitude as well.
Brilliant signing for the price.
Jesus and Zinchenko for 75 million and Harry Maguire cost 80 on his own!

It's likely not the popular opinion but I still think Saliba was more than ready for EPL football when we got him and we would have been a few points to the good last season had we had him on the team. Every where he's gone on loan he's played well enough from the start. Has he gotten better with the minutes played on loan? Sure! He's young, gifted, its natural he will get better. He was well scouted prior to us buying him. Some buys are for the future and some buys are for the first team. He was slated to being a first team player, possible starter after a period of time to get adjusted to a new culture, language, etc.

I think we 'wasted' him on loan when we could have used him and he'd have gotten better while contributing for us directly than for someone else on loan.

There, I said it.

I think a lot of rival fans completely underestimated Zinchenko and Jesus. We were continually told we’d bought City back ups, or a striker who Pep wouldn’t even use as a striker when they didn’t have one.

Perhaps it’s worth rival fans now admitting that not only are those two tremendous players but perhaps along with others Arteta is improving them?! Xhaka is currently playing his best football, and Arteta has overseen the development of Saka, Emile Smith Rowe, Martinelli and Nketiah.

The comparisons with Ole and Lampard always looked miles off. Arteta was always so far clear of both in how he saw the game even if the early results didn’t show it

I remember when Klopp started at Liverpool he got them straight in to his high press heavy metal football. Results were mixed and there were plenty of players who couldn’t do what they were being asked to do at a high enough level, but with the help of sound recruitment, £140m Coutinho sale and constant drilling on the training pitch Klopp created the team he has.
You could say the same about Pep and City, they had some embarrassing defeats in his first season and players who couldn’t play the way Pépé wanted.

Arteta is far from the success of those two but he’s built this over 2.5 years, stuck to his principles, been backed by the owners and this is the reward. We may not win anything this season but this is an exciting front foot team full of young players and they are fun to watch and the fans are rightly proud of the team and club right now.

By hiring Arteta I'm guessing the club thought we'd ultimately be playing (and winning) similarly to City and Arteta knew that system very well and the added benefit of already knowing the club and the culture.

Hi Rich,

It's great isn't it and the excitement amongst the fans is palpable. The first half domination yesterday was City-esque, even if Bournemough were really poor.

That said, its very early days and as we all know the PL road is riddled with large potholes that can bring you to abrupt halt at anytime.

Saliba looks class but he's only played 3 games, already has a song and is being talked about as the best CB we've had since big Sol and a kind of hybrid of Beckenbaur and Bobby Moore. I think we have to slow down the hype train a little and just let him play. He's only 21 and far from the finished article with lots still to learn and experience so expecting him to perform at a worldclass level week-in week-out is incredibly tough. There's a reason why the best CBs tend to be in their late 20s/early 30s and thats because there really is no substitute for experience.

We do need to get a new deal over the line for him, though, because the big boys will undoubtedly be sniffing around if he has a really good season.

Zinchenko is technically superb, very composed and an excellent passer, exactly the sort of LB who can slot into midfield during the game and give us an added dimension.

As TG pointed out, though, he may not be the man for LB when we are not dominating the game and are under the kosh a bit. Arteta has to figure out how best to use him and Tierney as we face different challenges.

I would love us to add a CM and goalscoring winger to the squad before deadline day but I think 2 players is now unlikely given the time constraints and the likelihood we will face intense competition for any of our targets.

Fingers crossed we can bring in one player who will elevate the squad still further.

It doesn't matter who you beat you get 3 points.

Some talk that we've began talking with Martinelli about a new contract even though he has three years left on his current run, as a reward for his performances and him now becoming such a crucial player for us. Think this is the type of proactive management that will become really important for us with this young team. Arteta sounded pretty confident that Saka will extend as well, and after that priority should be to extend Saliba as well.

Getting all three of them to sign new contracts is more important than any new signing we could make in my opinion. Young core players with world class potential, if you're lucky you have 1-2 of those in your side, and we have three.

https://gfycat.com/decentcourageousgreendarnerdragonfly

Zinchenko's full reaction to Saliba's goal. It's pretty funny, he doesn't even bother going over to celebrate with the team, just stunned with what just happened

This is just a little snippet, but it shows exactly what Zinchenko brings to the team. Apart from his brilliant technique he's got such a calm head, never seems fazed and makes everything look so easy. Very hard to put him under pressure because of how well he controls the ball and reads the game.

Jesus contribution to the opening goal was quite frankly world class and probably as good as you’ll see from any No.9 in the league this season.

Chases down a high punt, gets his body in front of the defender and is strong to hold him off, the first touch kills the ball and rolls the defender in one motion. Skips away from another challenge, cuts inside another defender (that’s 3 men beaten) and as he draws the last defender slips in a reverse ball to Martinelli.

Ramsdale-24
White-24
Saw this online

Saliba-21
Gabriel-24
Zinchenko-25
Saka-20
Ødegaard-23
Martinelli-21
Jesus-25
Tomiyasu-23
Tierney-25
Lokonga-22
Vieira-22
ESR-22
Nketiah-23

That’s how you go about squad building

His physical strength and combativeness are very underrated qualities of his. Because he's skillful and not very big it's easy to assume he's lightweight and will go down at any physical challenge, but he's got incredible balance and lower body strength on top of his silky technique, and he always seems switched on and ready to win duels. His set-up for that squandered Ødegaard chance against Palace was a bit similiar in how he just went in with his shoulder and shrugged the defender off the ball. The most complete striker I've seen at Arsenal for many years.

Balogun is starting for Reims today, and had a goal chalked off for offside after five minutes of play. Would be nice to see him have a good season on loan and come back to provide an option next year.

A different physique but that slalom reminded me so much of John Barnes in his pomp. Perfect balance.

In Mee's much-missed absence from this site I am glad somebody said it! Yes, let's enjoy our good start, and revel in the obvious quality of Jesus, but we are all familiar enough with Arsenal to know it can all go horribly wrong at any time. October will be the big test with games against Spurs, Liverpool, City and Soton - all capable of grounding us. Before then we probably need to pick up at least three wins from the games against Fulham, Villa, United, Everton and Brentford.

Chelsea 2 down at Leeds

That heatmap is pretty telling. Lacazette always coming back deep into his own half; Jesus always at the business end of proceedings.

Touch wood!

Superb bit of nonsense by Mendy on his goal line. Hilarious stuff.

He must have thought that he is a skilled outfield player.

Eze is some player at Palace. Was at Arsenal as a youngster, you can’t keep them all! Worth keeping an eye on this season.

Everything to play for still, but as it stands Leeds fully deserve the lead.

Are you sure?

Just gone to 3-0.

Chelsea have been poor. Sterling has been anonymous and Cuccurella average at best. They have looked toothless going forward.

Koulibaly sent off for Chelsea

Utterly brainless second yellow.

Leeds. That's all.

What?

We’re covering more distance per match than any team in the league. Quite impressive considering we’ve been winning all our matches from relatively early on, you generally run more of you don’t have the ball.

The turnaround from a team who I considered lazy, unable to press high and clueless without the ball in to what we see now is incredible. All the clues were there over the last few years, it really did feel like it just needed some better players chosen by the manager to fit the system

Quite enjoyable watching the headlines for club in crisis being dominated by anyone but us. I’m sure Liverpool will buck their ideas up, they have injuries and players out of form - but Chelsea are still a bit of a mess. Very little cutting edge up top, feels like they lack a real creator up there as well. In midfield they look like a bottom half club without Kante and Kovacic, and the centre of defence still feels vulnerable to me.