- Arsenal host Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday afternoon
- The Gunners are aiming to maintain their unbeaten start to the season
- Evening Standard journalist Simon Collings gave his take on Mikel Arteta’s side
That’s the view of Simon Collings, journalist from the Evening Standard, who analysed a solid opening to 2024/25 for the Gunners, having drawn 2-2 at Manchester City last weekend, following wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers, Aston Villa and north London rivals Tottenham Hotspur.
They also progressed into the Carabao Cup Fourth Round with an emphatic 5-1 triumph at home to Sky Bet League 1 outfit Bolton Wanderers in midweek, as well as getting their UEFA Champions League campaign up and running with a goalless draw against Atalanta, keeping Arsenal unbeaten across all competitions.
“Given the news we’ve had about Rodri in the last couple of days, I think that might have tipped the scales in Arsenal’s favour,” the reporter said, commenting on the title race. “Arsenal have come through a really difficult start.
“Those three away games – Villa, City and Spurs – were always going to be a real test and to come out two points off Manchester City, they would have taken that. It’s certainly built confidence.
“The depth is definitely better than it was over the past few seasons. That was a big aim over the summer, to raise the squad to get it to a higher level. If you think of two seasons ago when they were first in a title race and [William] Saliba got injured for that chunk of games at the end of the season, they really fell apart.”
Their next assignment sees Leicester City visit and ahead of Saturday’s 3pm kick-off, the pre-match discussion has been around how Arteta goes about managing the loss of Martin Ødegaard, who picked up a knock on international duty and is currently on the sidelines.
Discussing the squad, Collings continued: “The Ødegaard injury is a big blow, but they’ve coped well with it so far in games where they haven’t had a lot of the ball. It will be interesting in matches where Arsenal do dominate and they’ve got to break teams down. How do they do that without their best playmaker?
“It’s maybe about Arteta adapts to how he plays and going in a different way to get results. I think you’ll get a lot of movement and creativity.
“Particularly in the Spurs and City games, they were almost in an old fashioned 4-4-2 with two banks of four making it difficult. It’s not how Arteta wants to play. He likes to play 4-3-3 and to have the ball. Ødegaard conducts that. He sets the tempo and even without the ball he is very important in terms of their press.
“He is quite hard to replace. There’s no like-for-like player of his ability. Having someone who is happy to demand the ball in the middle of the pitch and open teams up, it could be [Kai] Havertz dropping back, or [Leandro] Trossard could play there, but he has done really well as a false nine and since January Havertz has been brilliant in that no.9 position.
“[Gabriel] Jesus is another option (in attack) but started in midweek so he will probably move back to the bench. Academy product Ethan Nwaneri, who did well in the Carabao Cup, is next in line but he’s 17-year-old and it’s a lot of pressure for him.”