Arsenal 3 – 0 Nottingham Forest: the perfect post-interlull game to gear the team up for the tougher tests to come this and next month. Yet, this game gave me also a deeper feeling, one of the dawn of a new era full of glorious, winning football.
A home game after an interlull period is always welcome. The manager has so little time to prepare for these restarts that not having to travel is a real bonus. Forest changed manager during the interlull for some reason. Nuno is clearly a very capable and fine human being, but he keeps agreeing to work for big, fat egos who just don’t value him. I am hoping that Forest will pay a very big price for this and that the Portuguese will find a club that values him much more than the sorry Spuds and the Forest owner did.
Eight observations:
The most obvious observations is of course the strength in depth Arsenal possess now. No Saliba? bring in Mosquera. No Rice? Merino replaces him seamlessly. No Bukayo? Bring in Madueke. Odegaard injured during the game? Well, young Ethan slots in just fine. This is just amazing, and I think Mikel has tried to put the pressure on Slot and Liverpool by stating they have the better squad. But he Spaniard has all the necessary tools in his shiny shed, and then some.
Control. Really successful teams are able to control matches, and the sort of control Arsenal had at home v Leeds and Forest is reminiscent of the first eight years of Arsene’s reign. Early days of course, and Arsenal will play better teams than these two, but it was great to see how much control the team had in all areas of the pitch. Control is based on balance, quality, confidence and cohesion, and I think that Zubimendi is the one who holds it all together for Arsenal. He connects defence with midfield, and midfield with attack with such composure and panache, and I am truly jealous of those who currently are able to see him play live in a stadium.
The wings gave us balance: Madueke has that typical ability to penetrate of Bukayo on the right wing; Eze has a Pires-like calm and calculated approach, and then also that unexpected burst or touch of genius to effect a game on the left wing. Together they helped us spread the game and make us much less predictable, and, it must be said, Merino and Ode/Nwaneri gave our midfield a better balance from an attacking point of view than we have had for a while.
It was great to see that Arsenal now have men in the box when a cross goes in from the left or right. Madueke put in a number of fine crosses and the likes of Eze, Merino and of course Gyokeres were there to pounce. It will take a bit of time before this will really pay diffident, but I am so glad to see us play a more direct and aggressive style of play this season. Having Gyokeres as our CF, and a bevy of quality wingers for Mikel to pick from, makes all the difference.
But what’s also important is that the whole team is responsible for creating and scoring goals, and I don’t think it is a coincidence that two weeks ago it was Timber who scored a brace and this weekend it is Zubimendi who does so. If goals can come from everywhere then the opposition will have a much bigger task to prepare for our game and keep our attacking threat to a minimum. We know all about Arsenal’s ability to score from a set-piece, and two of our goals came from just that, but if we can also surprise opponents with shots and unexpected headed goals then Arsenal are in a much better position than last season.
There were some great moments of beauty in yesterday’s game: Zubi’s fabulous rocket from outside the box; Eze’s razor sharp cross for Viktor to pounce; the glide of Ethan and his crisp passing; Mosquera’s composure and ability to find a free man, another fingertip save by our stopper, Trossard’s clever scoop into the box etc, etc. But for me the most beautiful ball of the game was by our Italian full back. Calafiori’s ball over the top was inch-perfect, and just what was needed to decide the game. These sort of balls appear to be hard to play by defenders, but the Italian produced a peach of a pass. Some may say the defender should have judged the ball better but I think he was simply beaten by the delivery. Eze then had time to pick his pass, which he did brilliantly, and Viktor said thank you very much.
I was also pleased that the team never sat back and allowed our opponent a sniff of a way back into the game, and that’s despite all the attacking quality Forest possess. This was often lacking last season, and let’s hope it’s behind us now. Three clean sheets in four is a very encouraging start to the season indeed.
My final observation is related to the first one: strength in depth means a deeper striving towards excellence. With at least two great players in each position, these duos are likely to push each other to higher levels. They learn from each other and of course there is an element of competition too. Nobody is an automatic starter if all are fit: leaving Rice, Martinelli and White on the bench is a good indicator of this. They are likely to play on Tuesday and will then be extra motivated to perform well. To have this luxury situation of two great players in all 11 positions, and some extra quality on top of this, is just bliss.
By TotalArsenal.