MAJESTIC ARSENAL MAUL COVENTRY
I mean, it doesn’t get better than that, does it? Arsenal mowed down newly promoted Coventry on autopilot. I want to suggest that it was easy, but I’m watching Man United 2-0 down against a worse team as we speak. There are no easy games, but there are great teams who are capable of making others look totally inept.
Arsenal just had it all. The team line-up was both familiar and extremely fresh at the same time. You just don’t see Odegaard, Kai, Saka, and Ben White in the same line-up these days. They were all fit, firing, and sublime. The pressing was outrageously sharp. The ball pinged around like the players had been mainlining 2023 videos again. There was a confident swagger about the game, the type you get when you’re Champions and the burden of 5 years’ worth of work is truly lifted.
Martin Odegaard typified that mindset. He’s looked invigorated since stepping foot in America for the World Cup. He has a lightness about the way he marauds around the pitch. He’s back to being an everywhere player. The game was picked up by the scruff from minute one and dragged wherever he pleased. He was popping up deep, leading the press, digging the ball out of pockets, and creating space. He even landed his name on the score sheet. But not for the first goal.
That started with Christos Tzolis… who was, aaaaamazing. In the minutes building up to the goal, he was the main character. It was his show. Every senior player at Arsenal knows the quality of this player, because they treat him with such respect on the pitch. He was pulling strings on the left, he was dragging play over to the right, he was setting traps with his pressing, and he was both creating and shooting… this was inside 15 minutes! The weighting of his passing is Bergkamp-like, some of his movement was like Overmars, so many fans online are just purring. His first major contribution to the season was breaking Coventry’s press high up the pitch, he freed the ball for Calafiori… the Italian twirled into the box and punched a pass across the box where Kai Havertz was lurking with a clever left-foot sweep of a shot into the bottom corner. He ran to the corner, arms open, signalling to me personally that my striking nightmare might be over because he is back.
The second goal was Tzolis inclusive again… this time he drilled a dangerous pass across the six-yard box, the Coventry keeper spilled it into the path of Saka who didn’t miss from close range. Not the prettiest, but exactly what we want to see from a player we’ve not seen enough of over the past 18 months.
To return the story to Odegaard, the third goal was 2023 all over. Saka fed an overlapping Benny Blanco run, the right back looked up (we like), found Odegaard unmarked, and he dropped one of the worst ball strikes of the season, duffing the ball over the line. Embarrassing in the best of ways. We need Martin on the scoresheet more this season. This was a good start.
So, a pretty dominant game. Great performances from all those who needed them.
Myles Lewis-Skelly got the nod for the first game, with everyone fit, which suggests he’s very much going to be the guy at 6 this season. He was winning duels, his passing was at 95% completion, the boy was all over the park. One of the features of his game that really helped the balance of the side was how he worked with the left side of the pitch. The buzzing partnership between Tzolis and Calafiori was unlocked with Myles. All of a sudden, Arsenal aren’t all about the right side of the pitch. It might be because it was just Coventry, or it might be because we have more craft down that side with Tzolis, a player who seems to make everyone better.
Kai Havertz upfront? Silk on my eyes baby. He’s just a much better player than Gyokeres. Not sure even the Big Vik superfans are in the fight anymore. Kai brings everyone into the game. You can trust his touch. Long passes make sense. He’s also great around the box. I just don’t see Vik scoring the goal Kai did last night. The slightly salacious move of the night was seeing Viktor sit out the entire game. That has never happened before. Viktor always gets some minutes. I am going to read into that in totality and assume the stories about his agent being in Spain all week are true… this would be the best move for all parties. Everyone comes out of a sale looking acceptable. My hope is that we have someone notable as the upgrade. A big part of finding the next level is having difference makers upfront. Viktor merely exists in a team like Arsenal, he doesn’t make us better… we need someone like Álvarez, who can break a game from nowhere. I am excited about the possibilities here!
There was some drama after the game, Ian Wright speaking out for Martinelli, who was not in the squad… and apparently he doesn’t really know what’s going on with his future. Needless to say, it must be bleak. If he really hasn’t been given a heads up, that’s poor form from Arsenal for a player who has been here a very long time. He has never dropped his head, never complained, and always given the absolute max on the pitch. He’s not the future of the left… but man, you gotta tell him if that’s the case? I suspect the issue with Martinelli is no one wants to pay £170k a week and pay £70m for him… and now we’re in a bind. Football is a tough career, being kicked from a club you’re happy at is savage, but I can’t say I am against it.
So, I’ll close on where I left off yesterday… sometimes, the best strategy over the course of a summer is to have the most settled squad. We haven’t moved anyone on, we’ve added quite a bit of experience… and everyone has returned to fitness. That looks like a winning formula! Plenty of season to go… but judging the sample of one, we’re going to be in the hunt for big trophies again.
