Arsenal 3-0 Coventry: Familiar faces provide opening day encouragement
Match report – Player ratings – Arteta reaction – Quotes round-up
Arsenal kicked off the new season with a comfortable 3-0 win over Coventry City last night.
It was no surprise to me to see Declan Rice starting, especially as Bruno Guimaraes was absent through injury, but I was a little surprised to see Bukayo Saka named on the right. I will say, I took it as a very positive thing rather than something to be concerned about though. We know he’s had an ongoing Achilles issue, and with Noni Madueke and Max Dowman available to the manager, the fact he felt Saka was ready to go is, for me at least, an encouraging sign about where he is physically.
I thought we looked in control from the start, we saw Christos Tzolis fire over early on, Saka had one deflected wide after good build-up play, and 15 minutes in we found the lead. Tzolis did well out on the left to hassle the defender into making a mistake, and don’t sleep on the first touch and turn from Riccardo Calafiori when the ball broke to him. The Italian then fed Kai Havertz whose first time finish into the bottom corner was excellent to make it 1-0.
Rampaging midfield play from Rice, combining with Martin Odegaard and then Tzolis helped bring about the second. The Greek international’s first time cross was too hot for the keeper to hold, he palmed it into a dangerous area leaving himself in no-man’s land in the process, and Saka was there to score what might be the easiest goal he’ll get this season. Nevertheless, he was in the right place to tuck it home for 2-0.
Our mix of short and long corners was interesting, and it was from one of the former that we almost made it 3-0 before the break, Rice curling a left-footed effort just wide after Saka fed him the ball on the edge of the box. In his post-game interview with Sky, Mikel Arteta was asked what he’d said at half-time, and his answer was ‘Get the third goal’ because, and I’m paraphrasing here, ‘2-0 isn’t comfortable enough in the Premier League’. After a season when 14 of our wins came via a single goal margin, I liked hearing that, because – selfishly perhaps – I don’t want to have my nerves shredded for 90 minutes every game again.
Four minutes into the second half the third goal came from familiar combinations. Odegaard fed Saka, he played a precision pass to the overlapping Ben White who pulled it back for the captain whose right footed thunderbolt … ahem … left the keeper floundering. In seriousness, if there was a touch of good fortune about the finish, so what? They all count, and that White, Odegaard, Saka triangle was a like a throwback to the halcyon days when they would torment defences week in, week out. For the captain it’s now two goals in two games this season, he got just one in the whole of the last campaign, so that’s a positive thing – and overall he played, as he did at Cardiff last week, like the Odegaard we all want to see.
It’s also a really good sign that as we wait to see what Arsenal, if anything, might do in the remainder of this window to bolster the attack, the players we already have delivered last night. Regardless of how much you want a new signing, a big part of how we improve this season is to get more end product and consistency from Saka, Havertz and Odegaard. The three of them finding the net last night is a good sign, we know they’re all capable of more than they delivered last season – albeit there’s some mitigation because of the way injuries impacted them.
For me that was the big positive from last night in collective terms. Individually I thought Tzolis looked fantastic on the left-hand side, playing with a kind of relentless intent that can only be a good thing. He’s not the quickest, he’s not necessarily the trickiest, but he plays with his head up and he causes defences problems over and over again. Still early days, of course, and new signings often have a kind of honeymoon period when they first arrive, but I really like the look of him and what he can bring to the team.
A word too for the full-backs, Calafiori and White, who both got an assist, and in the case of the latter in particular, it’s great to see him play in that buccaneering fashion down the right hand side. There really are few better at those final third runs outside his winger which either provide the overlap option, or take someone away to leave space for Saka etc to exploit. And in midfield, Myles Lewis-Skelly looked so comfortable. 94 touches, more than anyone else, passing it at 95% success, and like Odegaard I thought he did a lot to keep us ticking for the 90 minutes.
I thought Arteta’s use of subs was interesting. He took Rice and Saka off after 67 minutes, in part a benefit of having a 3-0 lead, but also that he had Martin Zubimendi and Noni Madueke available to him. I thought Noni was quite scattergun, which is his way really, but in that short period he made 4 key passes among some of the more untidy stuff. We then saw Mikel Merino and Eberechi Eze replace Odegaard and Tzolis, and the final sub was Piero Hincapie for Calafiori.
It meant Havertz did the full 90 and Viktor Gyokeres didn’t get off the bench, which I’m sure he won’t have been too happy about – particularly as he would have come on against one of his former clubs. Which isn’t to say there’s a big issue, it was probably something as simple as the manager thinking competitive minutes for Eze and Merino were more beneficial to the group as a whole than for a player who has had, more or less, a full season under his belt, but it did stand out just a little bit.
Afterwards, Arteta said:
There was a lot to like. Obviously it was a great result, but the manner we started the game, the domination, clarity, understanding and growth in the game was really impressive. It was great because the start is always tricky; we played a team that had a long time to prepare as well, and they are really good at what they do. But again, I was really impressed with the result today.
We had some big individual performances and we demand it at this level – the players have to be decisive, and I think they were decisive today.
As a first game of a new season, I don’t think you could really ask for more. If you’re greedy for goals, you could say we didn’t really press them after going 3-0 up, but I do think the post-World Cup pre-season plays a part in that. The staggered returns to fitness, the need to find individual and collective rhythm etc, it does have an impact. Nevertheless, we showed plenty last night to be encouraged about, we won comfortably, kept a clean sheet, took all three points, got minutes into certain players’ legs, and appear to have come through without any injury issues.
I’ll take that as a way to start a new season any day of the week. It wasn’t necessarily ominous from Arsenal, cited by most as favourites to win it again, but it was solid, comfortable, and showed we’ve got the foundations to improve as the season goes on. We are champions after all!
So, let’s leave it there for now, and see how the other teams look on the first weekend of the new campaign. Have a great Saturday folks, more here tomorrow including a Sunday Arsecast Extra for you too.
Until then.
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