Yesterday’s 3-1 against Southampton had a real air of familiarity of it to me, following from last weekend’s shenanigans:

  • At home to a newly promoted opponent
  • Expected to win and win comfortably
  • Lovely weather
  • 3pm kick off
  • Opponent scoring and taking maximum chances from their minimum opportunities
  • Arsenal pretty much dominant
  • Late drama

There were, of course, some differences. We didn’t leave it That late to get what turned out to be the winner, plus we actually went behind in this game as opposed to last week, in which at half time it felt like we were cruising. But the point remains the same; this was a game in which expectation eventually turned in to reality, but not without an element of perceived hard graft from those lads in red and white yesterday.

Arteta named a team which I have to admit I was surprised of in the pub pre game; he’s not usually a guy who favours large-scale rotation, evidenced by the fact that Ben White was famously not moved in to central defence in the season in which Saliba got his back injury and we had to endure Rob Holding in central defence for a lot longer than we should have. So to see him make four changes from a side that played in midweek, feels like a lot. I guess in reality the vast bulk of what most of us would call the ‘starting XI’ remined – Raya, Gabriel, Saliba, Calafiori, Rice, Saka and Havertz – but starts for Jorginho, Gabriel Jesus and Sterling were a surprise. I reconciled with the fact that Arteta knows he needs to use his squad this season and you can’t just give 15 – 20 minute cameo’s to some of these squad players, because if you do need them due to injury at some stage in the near future, it’ll take them longer to get up to speed.

There was probably also an element of “go on then lads, here is your chance, at home, to a newly promoted opponent – show me what you can do” about the line up too from Arteta, although in reality, if we consider how the game played out, it is clear that there are some players who are clearly playing second-fiddle to others in the squad hierarchy right now. Take Gabriel Jesus, for example, who I thought had a pretty average game by all accounts. Perhaps if we’re being generous we could argue that he hasn’t been able to form enough of the automatisms with some of his teammates, but he does look a long way off the player we all knew and loved when he joined the club. His decision making has been off for a while now, he struggled to really impact the game and whilst his work rate always continues to be in place, he doesn’t look like he’s scoring at all at the moment.

Sterling showed flashes of the electric player at Liverpool and City, whilst Jorginho was tidy enough in recycling the ball and had one shot which just went by the post, but all-in-all it felt like something was lacking a little in that first half to me. It sounds obvious to say “a goal” but I wonder if one of the half chances we created had of gone in, whether the floodgates would have opened. But I don’t remember Ramsdale making tons of saves in that first half. There was a lot of time taken on goal kicks, there were some speculative shots from distance, but it felt a little ‘bitty’ to me in the first 45. We looked to exploit that right hand side continuously and in that first half you felt that if we were going to get any joy it would be from Saka, but we just couldn’t unlock what turned out to be a low-block Southampton side – something I didn’t expect given their other games this season. But Russell Martin clearly adapted his usual approach and they were content to tuck in with a back five and ask us to break them down.

And as we got in to the second half, it felt like patience was clearly going to be the name of the game, because Southampton were buoyed by the fact we’d only had one shot on target in that first half and in the second they started to venture forward a little bit. Then the goal came on 55 minutes and it pretty much stunned us all at that point, because we’d had it for most of the time in the opening ten minutes and it was a Sterling mistake in the middle of the park that led them to counter and score through Archer. The goal itself was another perfectly placed on, with their second proper attempt in the whole match and once again like last weekend, we found ouroselves conceding when the opponents hadn’t really done anything major of note.

That goal was clearly all Arteta needed to see though, because literally one minute later we made the changes and it was Sterling and Jesus off for Trossard and Martinelli and almost instantly Southampton looked more stretched and stressed. I was remarking to Nick next to me that I’d thought Saka had been quiet in the second half first 13 minutes or so, which maybe some kind of psychic connection between me and he kicked in, because no sooner had I said it he turned the game around with his involvements. The first was a ball won high up the pitch and a pass to Havertz to set up his sixth for the season (I am becoming more and more convinced he’s hitting big numbers for goals right now based on what we are seeing, by the way), the second was his assist for Martinelli at the back post (will come to that in a sec), then the final one was his goal right at the end to wrap up the points.

Bukayo Saka is an absolute output machine. His numbers are crazy and I think this is going to be the season we see him break the 40 goals and assists tally. He’s already on ten combined. Last season he hit 34, the season before he hit 26, the season before he notched up 19. His trajectory is just going up and up and providing he doesn’t pick up a big injury, people will be mentioning him alongside the De Bruyne’s, the Salah’s and the Haaland’s for the best player in the league come May at this rate.

Let’s give some props to Havertz too, because his finish was brilliant, but it was Saka’s day. There was a bit of a wait for Martinelli’s goal to be confirmed, but his impact from the bench needs to also be noted, because that’s two in two for the league and it feels like the Brazilian finally has his groove back. Then, to top things off (even if we did have a slightly scary moment on around 75 minutes with a bit of a messy corner which knocked on to Raya’s bar), Saka gets a goal after great anticipation from the Southampton players’ mistake on 88. Lovely stuff.

We also got another notable cameo from Merino which was more minutes and good to see. He loves a duel, doesn’t he, eh? I think he pinched the ball back of a Southampton player about three or four times in the 30 minutes he was on the pitch. That feels like it’s going to be a handy weapon for us if we’re going to force turnovers of possession higher up the pitch.

And it’s onwards and upwards with another three points. It’s a shame Liverpool rode their luck at Palace and that City were facing an Adama Traore intent on missing just about every chance he was presented, but we did our job well enough and we go in to this pointless international break with three points safely secured.

I’ll be doing the Same Old Arsenal pod shortly so if you fancy joining me at 10am you can do so here.

Otherwise, I’ll be back here tomorrow basking in victory from yesterday and trying to work out what to talk about asides from the international football barren wasteland we have to now endure for the next fortnight.

Catch you then.