Adam Wharton, Nicolas Jover and Ethan Nwaneri (Photo by Alex Davidson, Julian Finney, Alex Pantling/Getty Images)
Last week was a hell of a week for Arsenal.
The win against Nottingham Forest was good, but the manner in which they brushed Sporting and West Ham aside was very, very impressive.
They have got their mojo back. You can see it by the way they are playing. They are confident, they are scoring goals and they are playing with smiles on their faces again.
The Sporting and West Ham games were much more like what we have come to expect from Arsenal. They are moving the ball quickly now and pulling teams out of position. That wasn’t happening earlier on in the season when they were struggling for form and confidence.
Martin Odegaard’s return is obviously central to the turnaround. Mikel Arteta’s team are just a far better side when he is involved. He is central to everything and keeping him fit from this point onwards is obviously absolutely crucial.
The key thing now is maintaining the momentum that has been built up over the last three games because Liverpool are showing no signs of slowing up.
They swatted Manchester City aside with ease on Sunday. It was another big statement from them and if Arsenal are to chase them down it looks like they are going to have to be pretty much perfect from this point on.
Wednesday night’s game against United is huge. United had a decent win against Everton and will be dangerous, especially on the counter attack, but I still think Arsenal will have too much for them if they play well.
Obviously there are some injury doubts ahead of the game. Hopefully Gabriel Magalhaes is fit because he would be a huge loss in both boxes if he doesn’t make it.
There will be a late call made on Thomas Partey. As far as I’m aware the muscle problem that kept him out against West Ham is nothing serious and there is a hope that he will be available.
Jorginho was very good in his absence on Saturday, however, so even if Partey doesn’t make it I would still feel confident with the Italian sitting behind Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice.
When you are nine points behind in a title race all you can do is keep winning. There’s no point focusing on what Liverpool are doing because that is all out of Arsenal’s hands.
The only thing they can control is their own results and they have shown in the past few games that they are getting back to their best. Now they have to continue doing that and see where it takes them.
I did laugh when Mikel Arteta was asked in his press conference after the West Ham game about whether Nicolas Jover should be getting a goal bonus.
That would certainly be eating into Arsenal’s profits should that be the case, given the number of goals they have been scoring from set pieces over the past couple of seasons.
Jover’s star is certainly rising at the moment and his reputation grows stronger with every goal Arsenal score from one of his carefully constructed routines.
I’m sure other managers or clubs would love to lure him away to take advantage of his expertise, but I can’t imagine he would be looking to go elsewhere at the moment.
He is such a key figure in Arteta’s coaching staff and you can see how much work he puts into making the team such a threat from dead ball situations.
I loved the one against West Ham for Gabriel’s goal. It was just a bit different to the one that had worked so well against Sporting a few days earlier, but that made all the difference.
Gabriel started just a bit deeper than he usually does. This time his starting point was from within the pack that always gathers beyond the far post, whereas against Sporting he started his run from a more central area and attacked the back post.
It caught West Ham out and that allowed the Brazilian the space he needed to meet Bukayo Saka’s corner. It’s just such a potent weapon for Arsenal that works time and time again.
Obviously Jover does deserve a lot of credit, but it does have to be said all of his work would come to nothing if the players didn’t put his ideas into practice so well.
Saka and Declan Rice are so good when it comes to the set piece delivery and the players who act as blockers to make the space for Gabriel to attack do it so well.
Everyone plays their part.
Adam Wharton in action for Crystal Palace
Adam Wharton in action for Crystal Palace (Photo by Warren Little/Getty Images)
There are going to be plenty of players linked with Arsenal as January edges ever closer. We’ve seen that in recent weeks, with Adam Wharton mentioned as a target.
Wharton is a fine player and you could see the immediate impact he had on Crystal Palace when he first arrived from Blackburn last season.
Injuries have hampered him this season, with his last appearance coming back in October, so I would be surprised if anything were to happen with him in January. If he was to move, I think it’s far more likely to be a summer thing.
We know that Manchester City are keeping tabs on him and I’m sure there will be plenty of other top clubs monitoring his progress at Selhurst Park.
With Thomas Partey and Jorginho coming to the end of their contracts, Arsenal will have to make some decisions soon about how they are going to freshen up their midfield options and it would be no surprise if Wharton was in their thinking.
But I can only reiterate what I’ve been told about January and that is that the likelihood when it comes to Arsenal is that it will be a reactive window, rather than a proactive one.
I believe the plan is to wait until the summer to do anything significant, unless something happens that potentially forces their hand when it comes to the market.
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A new contract for Ethan Nwaneri is certainly something on the agenda at Arsenal right now.
The club is happy with the work it has done when it comes to rewarding their players over the past couple of years, but they are well aware that they can’t afford to stay still when it comes to contracts.
Nwaneri only signed his first professional deal in March, but his progress since then has been rapid, with the 17-year-old having already scored four goals in 11 appearances this season.
There is no rush to extend his deal, but Arsenal’s approach to contracts in recent years is to ensure players are rewarded for their performances and their standing in the squad.
Nwaneri has already made himself a key part of Arteta’s squad and Arsenal will look to reward him for that, with discussions understood to be ongoing over a new deal.
And when you look at what he’s doing and the talent that he has, it’s impossible to say he doesn’t deserve it.