With October and November due to be pretty intense months and the games coming thick and fast, what any team really wants from kicking off such an intense period of the season, is for games to pan out nice and stress free with maybe some decent wins and opportunities to rotate players in. At the weekend the way the game couldn’t have gotten better in terms of bringing players like Partey and Zinchenko off, Gabriel Jesus off, etc. So to last night’s game, in which – ahead of the Liverpool match this weekend – Arteta needed to rotate to keep players fresh and ready for what will be the toughest game of the season so far.

So, with that context, what would a ‘perfect’ night look like from an Arsenal perspective? Pretty much exactly what unfolded.

Arteta rotated all but Gabriel, Xhaka and Martinelli from the starting XI and that means that the vast bulk of our team that will play on Sunday. Big tick. He also gave minutes to those players who haven’t played that much, with some of them like Tierney and Sambi, also having had more minutes to add to those they played last weekend. Another big tick. We started off against a relatively unknown quantity in Bodo/Glimt very well, pressing them high and forcing them back through our pressing approach. More big ticks. We scored relatively early, as has been our wont this season so far, with a goal on 23 minutes from Nketiah with a really smart and quick reaction finish after a rasping shot from Tierney ricocheted off the post. Tickety, tick-tick. Then we doubled our advantage just a few minutes later with Holding scoring what looked like a lovely glancing header from an impressive Fabio Vieira cross. ALL THE TICKS.

And so within 30 minutes we felt comfortable and for that, as a fan in the stands, it is lovely to watch. I do love these types of games sometimes; get yourself to the ground having had a few swift pints with mates, your team has total control of a game from start to finish, you get to go home enjoying another victory that – in this instance – sees Arsenal top the group after two games. You can’t really argue with that.

It was a game in which we were the better side, created the most chances with 18 attempts, scored three good goals to show the technical superiority of our rotated squad, hit the woodwork a couple of times, players were composed in possession and I never really felt threatened by what is a decent enough Bodo/Glimt side. And they are decent; this is a team who last night actually made more passes than us and had more possession than us (although admittedly it was 49 – 51 in their favour, so pretty close), so this wasn’t a team that were just here to sit in, let us have the ball and see if we can have 90 minutes of us breaking them down. They moved the ball around well enough, they just didn’t have the quality in the final third and when they did fashion one or two chances, Turner was equal to them in the Arsenal goal. He made one smart save with his right arm in the second half and we got a glimpse of exactly what we have in our back up keeper; he’s a good shot stopper. The gulf in class when it comes to having the ball at his feet was fairly obvious and he went long a number of times with no really aim, if I am completely honest, but he’s a clear back up ‘keeper and as long as he isn’t throwing balls in to our net and can perform adequately enough in these group stage games, then there isn’t really any issue from my side.

In midfield we had Sambi continuing to play understudy to Partey and whilst he’s good with the ball at his feet and I definitely think there’s a player in there, there are little bits on his game I think he needs to work on. Like the strength of his passing. Seems an odd thing to pick out, I know, but there were a couple of times last night where I watched him just under hit a couple of passes. I think I remember it was Rob van Persie saying that Dennis Bergkamp used to tell his teammates to hit the ball to him as hard as they can, because it was his responsibility to control it (which of course most of the time he did) and I wonder if Sambi could benefit from somebody giving him that advice?

I’m nit-picking though, because this was a game in which we were rarely troubled and after Arteta made all of the subs of some of the first teamers on the hour mark, we reasserted ourselves after what Arteta described as a little bit of complacency in the second half, to finish the game off as the game reached the dying embers. Gabriel Jesus though, blimey, what a talent. The way he can wriggle through situations like he did in the box for Fabio Vieira’s goal, was magical. I love watching this guy and I’m so glad we have him. We need to keep him fit and firing and if we can then this will be a good season, I’m sure. But also, let’s give some props to Fabio Vieira, who got a goal and an assist and is looking like such a silky player. He’s just so technically assured on the ball; for the Holding goal the ball was half cleared and he just nonchalantly controlled it dead, brought it out of his feet, then swung in a peach of a cross for Holding to score his goal. He’s a player who I think we’ll see a lot of this season and is the sort of signing that I hope we are looking back at the end of the season and saying “yep, THAT is and example of what helped lift the whole squad quality levels up”.

I don’t really know if there’s much else to say about the game, other than it is a case of ‘job done’ and we move on to Sunday. All the boxes were ticked. I personally wouldn’t have made some of the subs we made that early in the match and given those first teamers maybe a ten minute run out at the end, but again, I’m just being a bit picky. Because this was a good win and keeps us marching on.

Catch you all tomorrow.