When a team aspires to compete for a league title, they typically find themselves in the ‘lab’ for the first half of the season. The rhythm of the pre-New Year fixture list is very different, with European group stage matches, early rounds of the League Cup and ongoing international breaks disrupting the early season’s momentum.
New signings may take some time to get laid. Think back to this time last year and many Arsenal fans were sucking their teeth and stretching their necks to justify their respective spending on David Raya and Kai Havertz. As months passed, a consensus formed about the importance of both players. It took some time.
So far this season, Arsenal have been wracked by injuries to key players and have dropped three points in the league, each time falling to 10 men. Arsenal had beaten Brighton and Manchester City and had drawn both games when the red card was issued. They were level with Bournemouth when Saliba was given his marching orders and defeated.
It hasn’t been smooth sailing so far, but title-winning campaigns rarely are. In the autumn of 2001, Arsenal drew at home to Bolton and Blackburn, and came aboard after losing at home to Leeds and Newcastle before Christmas. At Christmas 2003 they finished third and won the title by 10 points. At Christmas 1997 they were in sixth place but won the title with two games to spare.
Of course, things are a little different in the controversial Manchester City era. But City face questions every autumn and Guardiola seems to have managed to answer them in the second half of the season. The first half is all about staying in touch while you iron out the wrinkles. But ahead of the ‘second quarter’ of the season, I have three questions.
What would a Rice, Merino and Odegaard midfield look like?
Considering how much Arsenal prioritized the signing of Mikel Merino this summer, and the likelihood that Jorginho and Thomas Partey will not be at the club next season, it is reasonable to assume that Arteta sees wins for Rice, Merino and Odegaard for the medium-term future . In the engine room.
So far, signs of the season are there, so I don’t think we’ll see any of these combinations before mid-November. Early-season injuries to Merino and Odegaard delayed the transition to a new midfield three. My personal opinion is that we don’t get the absolute best of Declan Rice in a slightly more forward role. Especially when the midfield lacks the velvet gloves of Martin Odegaard.
Rice and Merino played eight different roles at Bournemouth and always felt a little stuffy. It’s like trying to force a few pieces of dry toast out. Of course, there will be questions about Rice moving deeper into an anchor role. Merino and Rice may act like a double pivot, with one ‘holding’ and the other ‘going’. If so, it will take some time for understanding to form.
This article by Scott Willis shows that Rice’s passing is underrated and he doesn’t keep up with Jorginho and Partey in that regard as much as people think. Perhaps he could work on his body position a little more to enable him to pass more smoothly when receiving the ball. This is a very coachable problem, but Arsenal will have to learn quickly as time is running out.
The signing of Mikel Merino tells us a lot about what Arteta wants from the legendary ‘left eight’ role. He always played Xhaka there, bought Kai Havertz for the position before he happened to be the team’s centre-forward, and now he’s bought another languid duel monster for that role. Meanwhile, Fabio Vieira and Emile Smith Rowe, both with ‘skinny’ physical profiles, have not been trusted by Arteta.
The only member of this trio without a sense of mystery is Odegaard. He will return at some point and do Odegaard’s work. Arsenal have undoubtedly missed his combination of fantasy and brutality and have become slightly functional in his absence, especially when Bukayo Saka’s unwanted absence was thrown into the mix. But how this midfield trio looks and how quickly they gel will be pivotal to Arsenal’s season.
See more works featuring Jesus and Sterling
Despite being left out of the national team in October, Gabriel Jesus failed to force his way into the starting lineup at Bournemouth. Given that Odegaard and Saka are unavailable and Martinelli is only fit enough to fit on the bench, this is quite anathema to Jesus’ current status. The Brazilian did not see any action until Arsenal lost 2-0.
Jesus was brought on in extra time in the second half of the 4-2 win over Leicester, even when the team was down 2-2. He started against Shakhtar on Tuesday night but was substituted in the 68th minute despite not needing much minutes management. Jesus has the looks of a moonshot and looks like he desperately needs a jump cable to restart his Arsenal career.
Raheem Sterling is also a rotation option for the Gunners’ front line and could be similar to Jesus, which would mean a demotion of sorts considering his previous levels. Unlike Jesus, Sterling is yet to produce anything noteworthy in an Arsenal shirt. The club were perhaps a bit clever from a negotiating perspective in letting him leave Chelsea on loan too late in the transfer window.
But Arsenal lacked a column that said ‘Sterling’ and a column that said ‘nobody’ and they still had to convince themselves that Sterling was the better option. He is unlikely to sign a long-term contract with Arsenal, but he is playing for his next contract.
Of course, that is his prerogative. What I really care about is what he contributes to Arsenal. I was expecting more from him than ‘good for a few starts and a few goals early in the League Cup’. I was hoping he could be closer to Yossi Benayoun and less so than Denis Suarez in terms of loan signings, but as of now, he still has a long way to go and Arsenal will have to pay him a bit more than he has been doing so far.
Martinelli starts
Arsenal have one striker who, at least by his standards, is getting his form back on the right track after a bit of a slump. Martinelli used a fair amount of elbow grease to get back to his previous level. He put in the effort and the end product slowly started to come back to coat tails.
But while he can certainly improve in that respect and get closer to his previous levels again, the goal now is for him to continue to improve and perhaps reach that ‘Ballon d’Or candidate’ tier that many of us have been tipping him towards. For him before this year.
He will always likely be at a disadvantage compared to the younger players on the opposing flank, but the 23-year-old has his best years ahead of him and after some minor bumps in the road, it could be very good for him and us. If only he could jump from the lily pad of ‘I think Martinelli is back’ to ‘Martinelli is one of the best wide forwards in the world’.
