It’s Bournemouth this weekend and another chance for Mikel Arteta’s men to add to the momentum that is slowly starting to build around the club.
Wins over Crystal Palace and Leicester have made for a strong start to the new league campaign for the Gunners and they go into the weekend as one of only two sides in the Premier League with a perfect winning record.
Trips to newly-promoted sides can often be tricky affairs as the novelty of promotion provides an intangible boost but there doesn’t seem to be quite so much buzz around Bournemouth and Arsenal go into this clash with confidence high.
Gabriel Jesus looks to be in electric form coming off two goals and two assists against Leicester, while Oleksandr Zinchenko has slotted seamlessly into the side at left back. The Gunners have also been boosted by the seamless integration of William Saliba who, to borrow an Arsene Wenger classic, feels like a new signing.
Add to that the improving fitness of Kieran Tierney, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Emile Smith Rowe and Fabio Vieria and, all of sudden, the Gunners have a depth of quality that has been missing for some time.
The only real question mark hangs over Ben White, who was withdrawn against Leicester with what appeared to be a muscular complaint. With Tomiyasu’s return and the availability of Cedric Soares on the bench, it won’t be of overwhelming concern to Arteta but the Englishman’s performances on the right have been resilient and his synergy with Saliba and Gabriel will be missed.
That aside, and barring any undisclosed injuries from training, I would expect to see more of the same from the manager.
It will be interesting to see if he persists with the novel approach he took with Granit Xhaka at the Emirates last week, pushing the Swiss into advanced positions and slotting Zinchenko into midfield. The move seemed to bamboozle the Foxes for large parts of the game last week but will be much less of a surprise this time around.
That presumes, of course, that Xhaka’s positioning wasn’t employed specifically for Leicester, in response to some flaw the manager and his technical team had chanced upon. Tactical flexibility has been something of a hallmark of Arteta’s reign though so it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if we saw something different again this weekend or, indeed, if we saw Xhaka again popping up into the box.
Most important for this weekend, though, is keeping the energy and intensity high. Our endeavour and aggression came as a surprise to both Palace and Leicester and I hope we can see more of the same on the south coast on Saturday.
Banana skins are inevitable in any football season but we have the bit between our teeth at the moment and a young, hungry squad looking to make amends for the shortcomings of last season. I believe they have what it takes to get the job done this weekend.
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