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Winning sets the narrative, as Arteta works out the Arsenal Rubik’s Cube

Suburban Gooners Logo Suburban Gooners Logo I had a dream last night that we played Burnley, we were beating them 2-0 and into injury time, when Bukayo Saka went down and we were arguing for a penalty in stoppage time. The ref waved it away, but then was called to the monitor, to see that the second goal we scored hit Saka’s hand before he scored it. That second goal had happened about 20 minutes earlier and so much time had elapsed that surely VAR couldn’t call it back for a review? Well, apparently they can and even the Sky Sports commentators couldn’t believe it. It was injury time, the Saka goal was chalked off, he sent off Saka – which also bemused the commentators, then he awarded a penalty to Burnley – who duly scored it and we dropped points.

This sort of stuff only happens to Arsenal.

Damn right.

Of course some of this dream must have been influenced by the fact that the Scousers got another late winner yesterday, which means every one of their games so far this season has resulted in a goal after the 80th minute. It’s frustrating for us, but if we’re looking for the positives, they have been unconvincing in all of their games so far and on a weekend in which we were very impressive, the hope has to be that they continue to remain this unconvincing, because you can’t go the whole season playing as they did against Burnley and relying on late winners.

But there’s something else that I think my subconscious was trying to tell me: The winners set the narrative. I have to give props to Clive Palmer from the Arsenal Vision podcast on this, because I was listening to one of their pods the other day and he was talking about the Liverpool match. He said that the two teams were pretty equally matched, Liverpool got a wonder goal, but because they already have the trophy in their cabinet, they get to set the narrative as ‘that’s what winners do’ when they get late equalisers.

It’s true to be fair. Two season’s ago when we got a late winner against Bournemouth at home, we were told that Arsenal were ‘too emotional’ as a team. That same label hasn’t been applied to Liverpool, who funnily enough delivered the same against the same opposition and yet were given a narrative of “that’s what champions do”.

Winning allows you to set the narrative. Even if the media narrative is lazy and incorrect.

That’s what Arsenal and Arteta are battling against. We are up against a media narrative that, until we win, will see us be a target to go up against. And as Arsenal fans I think we, I, all of us, do have to probably just try to drown it out. If you spend so much time focused on what others think, you become a paranoid wreck. Focus on what Arsenal are doing and take pleasure when we perform well and things go our way. This weekend just gone was a great one; we won 3-0, we had our new signings look good, we delivered an impressive performance and we have some players like Madueke who are exciting and in form. What’s there not to like right now?

There will no doubt be a press conference tonight at some stage, as Arteta and his team travel to the Basque country to take on Bilbao tomorrow evening. We’ll get an update from him on player availability and I suspect we’ll get confirmation that Odegaard is out again with a recurrence of that shoulder injury he got during the Leeds game. I mean, honestly, could you get any unluckier than falling awkwardly on the same spot within two weeks. I think a bit like the Saliba situation, we need to just have him sit this one out tomorrow and give Ethan a shot. He may prefer Merino to Nwaneri tomorrow if that happens, but the most important thing of all is that I’m here talking to you about our depth options this season. No Saka, yet in Madueke we have somebody even Arteta is saying is pushing to take Saka’s slot permanently. It won’t happen, Saka will come back, but Noni deserves to be starting right now and I suspect even if Saka is back for the City game – which I think we’re all hoping for – that Noni should keep his spot if he keeps delivering in games like he’s been doing in the last three.

No Saliba tomorrow? No problem! As with Madueke, Mosquera has come in and been brilliant and for £14million, you have to wonder how the devil we’ve been able to prize this kid from Valencia with no other teams sniffing around him so vociferously. He’s been a rock at the back and whilst I think you put Saliba back in for City, if I’m in Arteta’s shoes, I’m probably thinking that I’m going to give some of those rotation lads a shot. Myle only got on as a sub on Saturday, so he could play, you’ve got an impressive-looking Hincapie who hasn’t started yet, Declan Rice missed his second game when fit since 2024 so he could come in, so he must be a consideration now too. The depth we have is crazy. Can you imagine going back in time and telling yourself that Arteta was going to rotate in and out the likes of Rice?

I think that move on Saturday was a telling one too. It was a message – a positive one – to the whole team. It was Arteta saying that there are no sacred cows when it comes to the starting XI. In times gone by we’d all know that some players are just going to always start. We could name them; Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Havertz. I still think Raya still gets that, but I’m not 100% sure of it now, because of that Rice decision from the weekend. If you can bench Rice, you can bench anyone, right? So if Kepa was playing tomorrow night that wouldn’t surprise me. If Hincapie started instead of Big Gabi tomorrow, I would be surprised, but not stunned. Maybe Arteta doesn’t go with Zubimendi and drops Rice in to the six to accommodate both Ethan and an in form Merino? Arsenal are like a Rubix cube this season; there feels like there’s a billion combinations that Arteta could go for. And that’s fun to think about.

But first let’s see what he has to say with regards to the injury news for tomorrow first. And after that, I’ll be back tomorrow morning for a match preview, so I’ll catch you then.

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Gooner born in 1982 from Harlow, Essex, now living in Uxbridge. I say what I see - frequently wrong, but hey, it's just an opinion piece, right? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.