That was as routine and solid a win as you’re going to get yesterday. And I couldn’t be happier. 3 p.m. kickoff, a historically stubborn opponent, we haven’t scored a set piece or a first-half goal in a while…that felt like it was going to be a grind in appalling conditions yesterday. Instead, The Arsenal stepped up, made it quite a comfortable game, and because I was in a different seat and not my usual in Block Five, I was lovely and dry for the duration of the game.
I’d said in the morning yesterday as I wrote the blog that I really hoped we’d score in the first half. Not only did that happen, but we even got an early goal, as Konsa’s bundled back-post finish saw us ahead within seven minutes. Lovely. It was a scrappy set piece, and just for those rival fans and pundits who cry about us and set pieces, there you go – have some of that!
Mikel even made a joke about it afterwards, which I liked, quite a lot, actually.
On the goal itself, I think Pickford’s not going to be happy about his positioning and flapping there, because it did seem as though it was probably avoidable. Everton in the main, seemed quite organised in defence, I thought, but that one early moment set the tone, and we know that more often than not when we’re ahead, we usually go on to win the game. That’s how I felt even early on in that second half, and whilst Everton did create chances in both halves, I thought overall we looked comfortable.
Until you get that second, however, and until you get that goal that kills it, you’re always worried, so the sight of Big Gabi creeping in at the back post to nod home was grand. We’d had a scare about ten minutes earlier when he went down (Arteta also referenced that post-game), but thankfully it wasn’t as serious as it first looked, and he secured all three points.
I think that was a big win given the context of the lunchtime game, where Villa did their job and beat City, so we had to do ours to keep pace by taking all three points. We’ve done that now; we sit level with them after eight games, and we’ve got a bit of daylight separating City and us from the rest of the Premier League. If Liverpool beat Brighton at home this afternoon, it’ll be five points between the rest of the league and us after Chelsea shit the bed at home to The Scum. As an aside – remember when we were told that no European football would have Chelsea as one of the title favourites? Three defeats and a draw after eight games is not what you’d call title-winning form. The winners of the Premier League in each of the last five seasons have lost five games (us), four games, three games, five games and three games. If Chelsea are to mount this title challenge, they’re going to have to do it pretty flawlessly from here it seems.
That’s why games like yesterday are important for us, because you can’t afford to slip up against opponents like Everton on your own patch. Given how the results have gone for City in this early part of the season, it feels like even draws at home aren’t good enough, so seeing us do what we did yesterday with a relatively easy and professional approach was really positive.
We also managed to rotate a few players in as well – Merino, MLS at left back, Rice in at the six, Gyokeres up top – it was really good to see Arteta use the full extent of his squad. I thought Big Vik did ok up top. Held the ball up at times, looked lively, didn’t score and I don’t even think he had a shot, but he didn’t look lost to me. In midfield, Merino was solid enough, whilst Myles showed us just how versatile he is by slotting into that hybrid inverted left back role that got him into the team in the first place a few years back. This was a great day for the Arsenal squad. I’d have liked to have seen more minutes for Zubimendi, but as Kevin (my cmopanion for the afternoon) mentioned to me yesterday, we don’t know what he was carrying, so I guess it makes sense that he’s being eased in. With Fleetwood to come in midweek, he can get a solid 60 under his belt, then let’s see how ready he is for a starting berth from next weekend, when another big game comes around as we travel to Liverpool.
There doesn’t really feel like there’s that much more to say on this one, because everything went off without a hitch. The players proved that despite the big loss of a talisman like Saka they can step up and deliver wins, and we saw pretty much every one of them put in an impressive performance that has the pundits once again talking us up as potential champions. That’s brilliant to see.
We’ll be discussing it this morning on the Same Old Arsenal podcast in a bit, so if you fancy joining us live – or even afterwards on YouTube – [you can do so here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MDmxBwO9AE).
I’ll be back tomorrow with more thoughts – see you then.